New York, March 17 (TIWN) As a border crisis is building, President Joe Biden is appealing to people to not come to the US, dispelling the impression for some from the campaign rhetoric that immigration restrictions would be dismantled.

"Don't come over," he said on Tuesday, repeating a plea by officials to people from Central America converging along the border with Mexico.  "Don't leave your town or city or community," he said in an interview on ABC TV.  Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas assured a House of Representatives Committee on Wednesday, "Border is secure, it is not open."  While White House spokesperson Jen Psaki has denied that there was a "crisis" at the border, Mayorkas said: "The Department is responding to historic and unprecedented challenges at the border, including the arrival of record levels of unaccompanied children."  Earlier he had warned: "We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years."