Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Friday defended the federal government’s stockpiling of baby formula for illegal migrants along the southern border, saying the Congresswoman who made the claim was uninformed about the law.
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik tweeted, “Joe Biden continues to put America last by shipping pallets of baby formula to the southern border as American families face empty shelves, this is unacceptable.”
Stefanik included pictures of pallets of baby formula sitting in Border Patrol stations waiting for illegal migrants to use for their babies after they cross the border.
Psaki did not deny the claim, which turned out to be accurate, but said Stefanik didn’t have all the facts.
“Well, we do like facts here, so let me just give you a little sense of the facts on this one. There’s something called the Flores statemen- — Settlement, which she may or may not be aware of, that’s been in place since 1997. It requires adequate food and elsewhere, specifies age appropriateness, hence formula for kids under the age of one,” Psaki said before leaving the White House for her new gig at MSNBC.
She added, CBP is following the law — that law that has been in place and been followed by every administration since 1997.
“So this has been a law in the United States for a quarter-century. It’s been followed by every administration. And on — but I would also note that we also think it’s morally the right thing to do. You know, and this is a difference from the last administration,” she said. “It is the law, but we believe that when children and babies — or babies, I should say, are crossing the border with a family member, that providing them formula — the formula is morally right. And so we certainly support the implementation of it.”