Biden's 1st 100 days live updates: Senate passes COVID relief bill along party lines

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday afternoon advanced the nomination of Merrick Garland to be the nation’s next attorney general in a bipartisan vote. On a vote of 15-7, three Republicans, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R- N.C., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., joined committee Democrats to favorably advance the nomination to the floor. Garland is expected to be confirmed by week’s end. 

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called Garland "an honorable man" in announcing his support for the nominee, but he expressed "concerns about the direction of the Department of Justice."

In the previous administration, Democrats repeatedly accused former Attorney General Bill Barr of being a partisan lawyer bent on protecting his boss, President Donald Trump, rather than enforcing the nation’s laws. Republicans, for their part, now see the potential for the Biden Justice Department becoming partisan, repeatedly voicing concerns that special counsel John Durham, appointed during the Trump administration, will not be permitted to finish his investigation into the origins of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

"I don't have any information about the investigation. As I sit here today and another one of the very first things I'm going to have to do to speak with Mister Durham and speak about how his investigation is going. I understand he has been permitted to remain in his position, and sitting here today, I have no reason to think that that was not the correct decision," Garland said last week. "I don't have any reason to think that he should not remain in place."

Grassley said he was putting Garland "on notice" that "any actions taken to end and cover up or otherwise undermine the Durham investigation should be interpreted as premeditated and political if Durham is sidelined." 

"His career of faithful public service that I think means I owe him a chance to just do exactly what he said, but he has his work cut out for him," Grassley said of Garland’s promise to "follow the law, nothing more and nothing less." 

It was an abrupt turn of fate, given that Republicans, including Graham, Grassley, and Cornyn, sunk Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court under former President Barack Obama.

-ABC News' Trish Turner and Alexander Mallin

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is one of nine senators participating in a virtual meeting with Biden early Monday afternoon. Manchin, a moderate Democrat, has become a powerful vote in the 50-50 split Senate.

In the president's big push for the Senate to pass his COVID-19 relief bill, Manchin's support is vital to winning passage. Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have already been publicly critical of the administration's push to add a $15 minimum wage increase to the bill.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas also discussed the administration's policy on unaccompanied minors in the immigration system on Monday the White House press briefing, a topic for which the Biden administration has come under much fire.

Mayorkas stressed that minors were only temporarily in the system before being placed with sponsors or going into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services. He stressed that the Biden administration would handle child migrants differently from the Trump administration when pressed by reporters.

"Well, actually, the Trump administration expelled children to Mexico, and we are not expelling young children. We are not apprehending a nine-year-old child who's come alone, who has traversed Mexico, whose loving parents had sent that child alone. We're not expelling that nine-year-old child to Mexico when that child's country of origin was Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador," Mayorkas said. "We are actually bringing that child into a Border Patrol station, as a stepping point to get that child in the hands of HHS that has the capacity and and the unique talents to care for the child."

"We are taking a look at where efficiencies can be achieved in the best interest of the child," Psaki said. "It is the best interest of the child that really define our actions."

He also discussed the work of the Child Reunification Task Force, an effort spearheaded by first lady Jill Biden, to try to get children reunited with families. Mayorkas boasted that 105 families have been reunited through the effort.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas joined the White House press briefing Monday to discuss the Biden administration's immigration process.

Mayorkas began by shifting blame onto former President Donald Trump's policies, saying that since taking office, he has been working to undo the work of the past administration.

"Let me explain to you why it is hard and why it is going to take time. I think it is important to understand what we have inherited, because it defines the situation as it currently stands. Entire systems are not re-built in a day or in a few weeks," Mayorkas said. "To put it succinctly, the prior administration dismantled our nation's immigration system in its entirety."

Mayorkas emphasized that it would take time to "build out of the depths of the cruelty" of the Trump administration.

"When I started 27 days ago, I learned that we did not have the facilities available or equipped to administer the humanitarian laws that our Congress passed years ago. We did not have the personnel, policies, procedures or training to administer those laws," Mayorkas said. "Quite frankly, the entire system was gutted."

He also discussed the recent influx of migrants, saying that there has been a three-fold increase in crossings at the Southern border.

"I have to take this opportunity, at the same time, to reiterate a message that we have communicated repeatedly throughout which is a message to those individuals who are thinking of coming to our border: They need to wait," Mayorkas said. "It takes time to rebuild the system from scratch."

However, Mayorkas did not give a specific date about when the system will be able to handle more migrants when pressed by reporters.