Journalist Ioan Grillo on minors at the border: ‘There’s not an easy solution to this’

Author and journalist Ioan Grillo on Wednesday discussed the different approaches between the Biden and Trump administrations on handling unaccompanied minors at the southern border, saying no easy solution exists.

Appearing on Hill.TV’s “Rising,” co-host Krystal Ball asked Grillo what differences he has seen in how minors have been treated since President Biden took office.

“I think now what’s come back is this idea of minors being held again, and there’s not an easy solution to this. I mean one thing is to — which they do do — is to say, ‘Well, we find if they have family in the United States, friends in the United States.’ And after they’re held for a certain amount of time they can be released into those communities,” Grillo said.

He said that differed from the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the border, which he called a “very, very harsh tactic.”

Grillo said people have told him that going through the immigration process at the U.S.-Mexico border is still “a better situation than they are in Honduras and El Salvador.”

“But also there’s many cases of them who are generally fleeing for their lives and people that are subject to being recruited or being targeted by gang members,” Grillo added.