White House says team to visit US-Mexico border

WASHINGTON: A team of White House officials will travel with Congressional lawmakers to the US-Mexico border on Wednesday, where an influx of migrants is driving a political crisis that President Joe Biden is struggling to contain.

The delegation will visit a care facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, said the White House, which has been accused by Republicans of refusing to take the full measure of the situation at the southern border -- in particular, the arrival of many unaccompanied children.

The health department is allowing media to attend the visit, but keeping it tightly controlled, with just one network allowed to send a camera whose images will be shared in a press pool.

"The Biden administration is committed to transparency," the White House statement said, adding that the various departments involved in the management of the crisis will work to facilitate access for journalists on the ground.

In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, photographer John Moore, author of a book on the US-Mexico border, expressed outrage that the country has gone from "zero tolerance" under former president Donald Trump to "zero access" under Biden.

"The current administration took over with a pledge to make US immigration policy more humane and transparent. But it is falling short on the latter goal, which makes it hard to judge how it is doing on the former: We journalists have no way of verifying how conditions have improved for migrants," he wrote.