Former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf says Trump officials warned the incoming Biden administration that dismantling Trump’s immigration policies would cause problems at the southern border.

The Biden administration has largely blamed the challenges at the border on the previous administration, saying it gutted DHS and used inhumane practices to try to deter migrants. Biden officials describe steps they’ve taken to accept the new influx of unaccompanied minors into the country and end controversial programs that require migrants to remain in Mexico as “a moral imperative.”

But some former Trump administration leaders, like Wolf, say the Biden administration is actually dismantling systems that worked.

“There is no consequence anymore,” Wolf told NPR. “The administration is treating this as though it’s a capacity issue and not an illegal behavior issue, and that’s a fundamental difference.”

Wolf served as acting secretary from November 2019 until he abruptly resigned in January weeks before the inauguration following a court ruling that challenged the legality of his appointment.

He said he and his career staff held multiple briefings with the incoming Biden transition team to outline the challenges. He said they shared data that showed migration trends increasing since September and October 2020.

He said the Trump administration implemented programs like “Remain in Mexico”; made asylum agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras; and stopped allowing unaccompanied migrants to remain in the United States following the last migration crisis in 2019.

He said his staff at U.S. Customs and Border Protection warned the Biden team that they’d risk another crisis if they removed those program.

“CBP would tell them and, in a sense, warn them, ‘If you remove this … this is the consequence for that. We will see a significant uptick,’ ” he said.

But those programs were quite controversial and included reports of abuse and misuse. Asylum-seekers lived in squalid camps awaiting a court date. The New York Times reported that the Trump administration expelled some Central American migrants into Mexico.

Wolfe said children were flown back to their home countries and received by government officials and taken home.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged earlier this month that the administration was wrestling with the number of migrants — particularly unaccompanied minors — arriving at the border.

But he stressed there were more pressing moral imperatives to address in implementing immigration policy.

“Sometimes the tools of deterrence defy values and principles for which we all stand,” Mayorkas said. “And one of those tools of deterrence that the Trump administration employed was deplorable and absolutely unacceptable.”

These surges in migration also appear to be cyclical. They during the Obama administration in 2014 and again in 2019 during the Trump administration, despite its harsh policies.

President Biden sent some of this top officials to Mexico and Guatemala this week to discuss how to address the root causes of migration.

Wolf agrees that the numbers would have likely increased as Biden took office regardless, but he argued that Biden’s policies inflated the challenge. And he said that the U.S. government’s resources wouldn’t have been as taxed.

“We were telling them … ‘If you take down this, there’s no capacity in Border Patrol stations. There’s no capacity at HHS [facilities]. You will begin to have a backup. And here’s the consequences to that.’ “

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick DurbinDick DurbinMeet the Make the Senate Great Again caucus Sunday shows preview: Biden administration grapples with border surge; US mourns Atlanta shooting victims Hillicon Valley: Senate Republicans call for hearing on FTC’s Obama-era Google decision | US grid at rising risk to cyberattack, says GAO | YouTube rolls out TikTok rival in the US MORE (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat in the upper chamber, on Tuesday said he “can’t keep up” with the level of gun violence in the U.S. after two deadly mass shootings in the past week.

Durbin during his opening statement at a committee hearing on gun violence, which was scheduled before last week’s shooting spree at massage parlors in Atlanta, said he had to again amend his statement and questions for witnesses following Monday evening’s deadly attack at a Colorado grocery store. 

“I can’t keep up with it,” he said. “I can’t change and amend my opening statement to keep up with it. It just keeps coming at us.” 

“We are numb to the numbers,” he continued. “Unless we are personally touched, it’s just another statistic. That has got to stop.” 

Durbin then called the two recent mass shootings, which together left a total of 18 people dead, “devastating.”

“These victims and their loved ones are worthy of our thoughts and our prayers, but there’s more that’s required,” he argued. 

Durbin explained that as the country faces “a pandemic of coronavirus, we have another epidemic in America called guns.”

“I could ask for a moment of silence for the mass shooting in Boulder last night, and after that is completed I could ask for a moment of silence for the shooting in Atlanta six days ago, and after a minute, I could ask for a moment of silence for the 29 mass shootings that occurred this month in the United States,” he explained. 

“But in addition to a moment of silence I would like to ask for a moment of action, a moment of real caring, a moment when we don’t allow others to do what we need to do,” Durbin said. “Prayer leaders have their important place in this, but we are Senate leaders.” 

“What are we doing? What are we doing, other than reflecting and praying?” he questioned. “That’s a good starting point, that shouldn’t be our endpoint.” 

Senate Jud. Cmte. Chair Durbin at gun violence hearing:

“We face a pandemic of coronavirus. We have another epidemic in America called guns … Prayer leaders have their important place in this. But we are Senate leaders … What are we doing, other than reflecting and praying?” pic.twitter.com/0TyL09kEsJ

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 23, 2021

Durbin then led other Democrats on the committee in calling for commonsense gun reform, including more stringent background checks required for gun purchases.

Meanwhile, Republicans on the committee, including ranking member Chuck GrassleyChuck Grassley Democrats look to Georgia model ahead of 2022 Senate races Moderate Democrats warn leaders against meddling in Iowa race The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden: Back to the future on immigration, Afghanistan, Iran MORE (Iowa), argued that a spike in crimes has been tied to calls to “defund the police” and that gun violence could be curbed by increased law enforcement training and presence throughout communities, rather than limits on firearms. 

The hearing comes the same day Senate Majority Leader Charles SchumerChuck SchumerDemocrats make low-tax states an offer they should refuse Biden must keep his health care promises FEMA pauses flood insurance rate update after Schumer pushback: report MORE (D-N.Y.) vowed to take up measures combating gun violence, adding that lawmakers “have a lot of work to do.” 

“The Senate is going to debate and address the epidemic of gun violence in this country,” he said during a floor speech. “I’ve already committed to bringing universal background checks legislation to the floor of the Senate.” 

The House passed legislation this month to expand gun background checks, and Schumer has said he would bring it to the floor in the upper chamber, though he faces an obstacle with the 60 votes needed to pass in the Senate unless Democrats are able to nix the filibuster. 

Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have been testing their vaccines in people as young as 12, and experts are feeling confident that the results will be ready in time to get kids 12 and up vaccinated for the upcoming school year. Creech said vaccines could be available for high-risk kids 12 and older by July or August.

Johnson & Johnson has announced plans to begin testing its vaccine in people ages 12 to 18, and J&J CEO Alex Gorsky said this month that the company will likely have a vaccine available for children under the age of 18 by September. In February, the University of Oxford announced it would begin testing AstraZeneca’s vaccine in people ages 6 to 17. Novavax said it expects pediatric trials of its vaccine to kick off shortly.

But each vaccine needs to be carefully tested in pediatric populations until enough data is generated for the US Food and Drug Administration to evaluate whether it is safe and effective.

What does this mean for the upcoming school year?

Parents and teachers should be vaccinated by this fall, but many kids, especially those under the age of 12, will likely not be.

Children are much less likely to get seriously ill or die from Covid-19 than adults, and there is increasing evidence that with the right precautions, the risk of in-school virus transmission is low.

“Children’s hospitals have not been full because of this pandemic,” said Creech. “The pandemic raged in the United States — more than any other country — and yet our children’s hospitals were typically being used for the overflow from adult hospitals.”

Most health experts and authorities, including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, don’t list vaccinating children as a prerequisite for a return to in-person learning, but it will add a degree of protection for students, school staff and their families.

How will pediatric trials work?

Pediatric Covid-19 vaccine trials will aim to determine whether vaccines can protect kids from becoming sick if they are exposed to the virus. Researchers will test the vaccines in teens first and work their way down to younger age groups, which may need different dosages.

“We start with low doses and move up in the dosage until we find that Goldilocks moment, where we give them just enough of the vaccine to get the right immune response but without a high amount of side effects,” Creech said.

All participants in the initial part of Moderna’s KidCOVE study will receive two 25, 50 or 100 microgram doses of the vaccine, so researchers can determine the appropriate dosing. Then the trial will expand to include participants who are given a placebo, so the safety and efficacy of the vaccine can be studied.

Dr. Steve Plimpton, an OB-GYN and investigator for the KidCOVE study in Phoenix, Arizona, said the 14-month study will include planned pauses, check-ups and blood draws.

Researchers hope to build off the knowledge gained in the adult trials.

“What we’re hoping for, and I think what we’re close to, is being able to define a number of antibodies in the bloodstream that are a correlate of the protection that we saw in those big Phase Three trials of 30 to 40 thousand people,” said Creech.

Researchers will then look for that level of antibodies in pediatric participants to know that the vaccine is providing protection.

“That way we don’t have to do studies of 30,000 children, we can do studies of five or ten thousand children instead,” Creech said.

What are concerns about side effects and safety?

“Children are not just little adults,” Creech said. “They have immune systems that look a whole lot like adults, but they have a different level of training, they’ve seen fewer viruses and they have fewer health problems.”

While it’s not unusual for a 40-year-old to experience a fever and sore arm after getting vaccinated, those side effects may be more difficult for a 9-month-old to tolerate.

“We want to be really thoughtful so that as we launch vaccine campaigns in children, we can give pediatricians — but most importantly, parents — a full expectation of what they might see over the day or two following vaccine,” Creech said.

Dr. Robert Frenck, director of the Vaccine Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and investigator for the Pfizer trial at the hospital, reviews “symptom diaries” that participants are asked to keep.

“The kids — if they’re having symptoms — are having headaches, they’re having fatigue. They may have some muscle ache, but other than that, really not much,” said Frenck. “Most symptoms are going away in a day or two. There’s a number of people that have almost nothing.”

Some children who contracted Covid-19 experienced MIS-C, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, which is rare but can cause severe illness in some.

“We’re going to be watching that with particular interest to make sure that we aren’t seeing it in association with the vaccine, or in association with the vaccine plus an infection that they might develop months down the road,” said Creech. “There’s no reason to think that that’s going to happen due to the vaccine alone, but we’re going to be looking for it.”

Participants will also be monitored closely for rashes, fever, fatigue or other health issues.

Covid-19 vaccine clinical trials are overseen by a Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), comprised of independent experts who have access to trial data and can recommend studies be halted if there are safety concerns.

Dr. Kathryn Edwards is a scientific director at Vanderbilt University’s Vaccine Research Program and a member of the DSMB for a Covid-19 vaccine that will be tested in children.

“If children get sick, they’ll be seen by the investigators to see whether there was any possibility that the illness is related to the vaccine,” said Edwards. “There will be meticulous attention to safety concerns.”

How can children take part in trials?

Plimpton said he has seen an enthusiastic response to the call for participants for Moderna’s KidCOVE study, which aims to enroll 6,750 participants in the US and Canada.

“It’s amazing how much the parents are coming out and are willing to try to help us get this cleared for their kids,” said Plimpton. “I told Moderna that we could probably get all 6,750 patients here in Phoenix — and they have 75 sites in the United States and Canada.”

Plimpton noted that the trial does not have specific demographic requirements, but the response has been diverse and trial sites are spread out across the nation to include a broad range of participants.

“For the most part, we’re getting everybody,” he said. “It’s happening because all parents want to protect their kids.”

Rachel Guthrie, a labor and delivery nurse in Phoenix, Arizona, enrolled her 3-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter in the Moderna trial. She said she wants to protect her children from any exposure she encounters and wants her son to have some degree of protection at his in-person preschool. They’re set to receive their first shots this week.

“I jumped at the opportunity, because I want my children to have that protection,” she said. “To get the approval of this vaccination for kids, someone has to be willing to step forward.”

Researchers are hopeful that kids won’t be the only ones who benefit from the trials.

“We also want the study to give other demographic groups peace of mind that they can go get the vaccine. ‘Hey, this 6-month-old baby got the vaccine — why am I, as a 25-year-old, not willing to do it?'” said Plimpton.