Associated Press White Home correspondent Colleen Long requested President Joe Biden to answer criticism he was “too mushy on border security” earlier than his newest moves — but “now too laborious.”

Fox Information has long clamored for Biden to seek advice from the border, top an severe media charge that at last yielded results when President Biden announced new border enforcement actions closing week and visited the border on Sunday in El Paso, Texas.

However those new moves were met with criticism from advocates and activists that one reporter — New York Times White House correspondent Michael Shear — says exceeds anything he saw “all the way through the Trump years.”

During a joint press conference Tuesday, Long asked the president to respond to the range of criticism, and Biden addressed the issue at size, saying neither sets of critics are appropriate:

PRESIDENT BIDEN: All proper. I was having hassle listening to, but I’d prefer to name on Related Press, Colleen Long, for the first query.

COLLEEN LONG: Thanks, Mr. President. Hola, Señor. And hello, Prime Minister Trudeau.

For Mr. President, you’ve been accused of being too gentle on border safety and now too arduous, following the recent border policy changes. What’s the correct balance?

(President Biden answers 2nd question about categorised documents)

PRESIDENT BIDEN: The first question, now I forgot. (Laughter.) Your first query related to —

COLLEEN LONG: I — yes, I asked if we — I asked if the —

PRESIDENT BIDEN: I’m only joking.

COLLEEN LONG: Oh. (Laughs.)

PRESIDENT BIDEN: The answer is — the reply is: You’ve obtained each — both the extremes are fallacious. It’s a general middle proposition.

Now, appear, as was talked about by way of every person in one way or every other, this has been the greatest migration in human historical past world wide, in addition to in this hemisphere. And when I received elected, the very first thing I — the first main piece of legislation I offered used to be to reform the immigration process, to make it extra orderly, to make it extra — to make sure individuals have get entry to under the regulation.

And so, what we discovered — and now not just in my discuss with to El Paso, however earlier than that — we discovered is that our Republican pals and some — a couple of Democrats — they were very critical of what’s happening on the border but yet refuse even look at the element file I submitted for the Congress to believe to reform the method totally.

And so, number one, at the moment, a majority of our migrants are coming from 4 international locations: Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. And we’re expanding the exi- — the very a hit parole software we had, with regard to Venezuela, to Cuba and to Nicaragua and to Haiti to offer secure and orderly and humane processing for folk fleeing these countries to return to the USA and claiming below the — looking for asylum.

That is going to scale back the number of individuals legally seeking to cross — illegally seeking to pass the border. Venezuelans had been seeking to enter the united states. That they dropped — that has dropped off dramatically as a result of we’ve allowed them to go right away to no matter country — the first u . s . a . they go to, directly contact america, make it possible for they make their application exhibiting that they’ve — they do a heritage check; they, in truth, have get entry to to a sponsor; and that they have got been — they’ve been examined. And that manner, they’re able to come thru ports of entry.

And it’s dropped off — I’m going to make sure I get the numbers proper — dramatically from 1,a hundred individuals trying to enter to — per day — to 250 a day.

I’ve asked the — and I need to thank the President of Mexico for agreeing to take up to 3,000 individuals again in — as — that don’t meet this standards. As a result of, seem, presently the cartels make a lot of money, which they use for drug trafficking as neatly. Folks undergo — must make it via jungles and an extended experience to the — to the — to the border. And many are victimized, not simplest relating to what they have to pay, but victimized bodily in alternative routes.

And so we’re trying to make it easier for folk to get here, opening up the capability to get right here, but now not have them go through that godawful process.

And we’re going to proceed our efforts to address the foundation motives of migration to lend a hand folks keep in their residence nations. I’ve requested the Congress for $4 billion to provide for that. We’ve also had our Vice President present for personal donations of over $three billion to be sure that people —

Look, all of you know all and sundry in the United States are immigrants. And mine go the entire method again to the Irish famine. However the point is: Everybody have been immigrants. And one of the crucial issues that comes throughout fairly naturally is, it’s no longer like individuals sit in their home metropolis, county, city and say, “I obtained an ideal thought. Let’s sell the whole thing we’ve got, give it to a coyote, go through some jungles and an extended path up to the USA, smuggle us across the border, drop us in a wasteland. And gained’t that be enjoyable in a rustic we don’t even speak the language?”

We’ve — we are able to do greater than simply just make felony immigration extra streamlined. However we are able to also do it with the aid of combating folks from looking to have to depart within the first place, by using serving to their communities, if truth be told, better their cases.

And so, I — I hope — you realize, and, by means of the way in which, my proposals are supported through the Chamber of Commerce, through the American labor motion, now not — I imply, which is an odd coalition — and a complete range of people.

The purpose here is that my Republican chums in Congress should sign up for us in the solutions.

And the one final level I’ll make — and I’m sorry to go on goodbye, however we spent numerous time speaking about it — is we’ve to increase the technological capabilities on the border, both to intercept unlawful drugs and different contraband, in addition to individuals being smuggled across the border.

We’ve now the power to make use of and use — a few of you could have considered them; I do know you all — you’ve, I’m sure — these vehicles that trip alongside of a tractor trailer. It’s like an enormous X-ray computer, and it could determine what’s inside of that tractor trailer. And lots move the border each day — unlawful commerce. And so, we’re allowed to decide whether or now not there — fentanyl is in there, medicine in there, folks being smuggled throughout the border.

We’re going to offer considerably extra of those autos for the people in an effort to decide on the border what want — what — what is coming throughout legally and illegally.

Much more to claim, however I probably already mentioned an excessive amount of. Thanks.

Watch above via C-SPAN.

The put up WATCH: Reporter Asks Biden To Answer Critics Who Say He Was once ‘Too Mushy On Border Safety And Now Too Laborious’ first seemed on Mediaite.