The Biden administration continues to reject accusations that its recent action toward migrant children is anything like President Donald Trump ‘s immigration policies.

“It’s absolutely not the same thing,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told Meghan McCain in an interview Thursday on The View .

More than 400 migrant children were reportedly referred to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shelters on Tuesday alone—a rate that’s higher than the 30-day average of children referred in 2019 under Trump.

McCain then pressed Psaki, asking why a Texas facility that operated under Trump for only a month in September 2019 was reportedly reactivated temporarily by Joe Biden to hold as many as 700 children ages 13 to 17, especially given that the president and Vice President Kamala Harris have spoken against child separation policies.

“We are not ripping children from the arms of their parents. That is horrible and immoral and something we saw in the last administration,” Psaki told McCain.

Psaki added that the Biden administration has struggled with how to “humanely” treat unaccompanied minors who have fled conflict in their home countries and are arriving at the border amid a pandemic.

The U.S. has seen an influx of arrivals of unaccompanied minors, who are often escaping poverty and violence in their home countries, according to data from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). A concern for the children’s safety reportedly compelled the Biden administration to reopen and “revamp” the Texas facility to offer medical, education and legal services for migrant children who have arrived in the U.S.

“This is incredibly difficult, it’s heart-wrenching…but this is the best decision we felt we could make to keep these kids safe and get them into the right places and right homes,” Psaki said.

McCain followed up by asking Psaki to further clarify if children were being detained in separate facilities. The press secretary’s response didn’t deny that the children were being sent to different facilities: “This is kids going to a facility, run by HHS.”

McCain’s question concerned whether Biden has taken steps similar to Trump’s regarding migrant children. In 2018, Trump’s Justice Department announced a zero-tolerance policy, which required authorities to detain and criminally charge all adults entering the U.S. without authorization, leading to law enforcement separating minors from parents or guardians, who had to wait for trials. The CFR reported that at least 4,300 migrant families were separated from June 2017 to June 2018.

But Biden’s plan looks much different. He officially ended Trump’s zero-tolerance policy last month and took executive action to reform the national immigration system, including creating a task force to reunite families affected by the policy.

Despite this, McCain also brought up reactions from Democrats and activists, who have been quick to condemn Biden’s reopening of the detention facility in Texas.

“This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay — no matter the administration or party,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted.

Psaki reiterated in response that the administration’s decision was a matter of safety for migrant kids and said “it’s going to take some time” before an ideal solution could be found for them.

Psaki also said data the Trump administration failed to collect has made it increasingly difficult for the Biden administration to reunite children with their families. She repeated that Biden’s actions were primarily taken in the name of safety.

“We’re absolutely not doing what the former president did and what, frankly, the current president and the current vice president objected to, which is ripping kids from the arms of their parents,” Psaki said. “That is not the policy of this administration and not something we would do.”

Newsweek reached out to HSS and the White House for comment on the status of the Texas facility but did not hear back before publication.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday on ABC’s “The View” that the Biden administration is not “ripping kids from the arms of their parents” when asked about the reopening of a migrant facility near the U.S. Mexico border for housing children.

Co-host Meghan McCain asked, “This week, a migrant facility that operated under the Trump administration for only a month in September of 2019 is being reactivated to hold up to 700 children ages 13 to 17.”

She continued, “President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly spoke out against kids in cages. I feel like this is the same thing, and that you’re still detaining kids at the border, and it’s not meaningfully different than what President Trump was doing.”

Psaki said, “Absolutely not, the same thing Meghan. We are not ripping children from the arms of their parents. That is horrible and something we saw in the last administration, but we’re seeing kids are fleeing prosecution. They’re fleeing really difficult circumstances in their home country, and they’re coming to the border, and we have to figure out how to treat them humanely and team them safe and keep them safe, and in a time of COVID. We had to have educational services, so we could have legal services and medical and health services and have those kids in there treated humanely until we can find proper homes, family placements for these kids. This is incredibly difficult. It’s heart-wrenching, and it’s a really difficult decision, and it’s the best decision we could make to keep these kids safe until we can get them to the right places and the right homes.”

McCain pressed, “I just wanted to know, are you or are you not detaining children in a different facility?”

Psaki said, “Well, Meghan, this is a facility that was reopened. It was revamped, and it was redone to have these kids in a place where they could have access to educational services, health services so they could find proper homes. We can’t send them directly to families that haven’t been vetted. We’ve seen issues with that in the past. We can’t have them all in the former HHS facility because of COVID, and we need to make sure there are safety protocols, so they’re not in beds next to each other.”

She continued, “What’s important, and what we all have the responsibility to do, is communicate what this is and what this is not. This is a facility, and we had to open a new one to make sure we have the safety protocols in order to address the COVID needs and the health and safety needs because we can’t have as many kids in the former HHS facility. That’s exactly what we did, but our objective is to get these kids into safe homes with their families as quickly as possible. We are absolutely not doing what the former president did, and what frankly the current president and the current vice president objected to, which is ripping kids from the arms of their parents. That is not the policy of this administration and not something we would do.”

She added, “It’s absolutely not the same, and that’s our objective. You know, we want these kids to be safe. We want them to be treated humanely. We can’t send them back on the journey they just went on. That is not the right choice, but we need to make sure that we are finding their families. That’s hard too. There’s not the data and the history, thanks to the last administration. So this is incredibly difficult. We want these kids to be with their families, to be reunited. We want they can to be with family members. It’s going to take some time, and we also want them to be safe during a time where there’s a global pandemic, and that required the opening and revamping of this facility.”

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Germany reported a record high in NATO defense spending for 2021, submitting a budget of €53 billion ($63.8 billion) for the current year.

That figure marks a 3.2% increase over the year before . In 2020, spending was capped at an estimated €51.4 billion.

Countries including Germany have hoped that an increase in NATO spending could ease a trans-Atlantic dispute about burden-sharing among members.

Former US President Donald Trump had accused Germany of not contributing enough to NATO, and susbsequently withdrew thousands of US forces stationed in the country.

Earlier this month, however, US President Joe Biden announced that there would be a freeze on US troop redeployment from Germany.

Stoltenberg expects pressure from Biden

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said multiple times that he expects to receive pressure on the issue from US President Joe Biden, who has vowed to boost ties with NATO, unlike his predecessor.

“All US presidents over the past decades have advocated more defense spending by Europe’s NATO partners,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with German news agency dpa last year.

Biden, he said, had already called on European allies to invest more before his election.

In 2018, Trump had offered the possibility of the US withdrawing from the alliance if partners did immediately meet the goal of spending 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.

German defense spending in 2020 was in line with NATO calculations, that Germany’s spending should be equivalent to 1.57% of GDP – up from 1.36% the previous year.

Spending to remain the same despite pandemic

According to Der Spiegel magazine, an internal analysis for 2022 also shows chronically underfunded armed forces and argues that NATO planning goals of having Germany and other countries contribute 2% of the GDP within the next few years, “can’t be initiated or realized on time,” under the current budget.

In light of the financial consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, however, Stoltenberg has said that defense financing should remain the same, if not increased.

“All of this has created a new security environment that makes investment in our security continues to be necessary,” he said.