Biden says ‘every country must secure its borders’, blames Trump as Republicans decry new ‘amnesty’ for 550K
WASHINGTON — President Biden declared himself a champion of national sovereignty Tuesday — insisting “every country must secure its borders” as he announced new initiatives that Republicans decried as “amnesty” for about 550,000 long-term US residents who arrived illegally.
The 81-year-old president, who has presided over three years of record-breaking illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border, tried to blame his predecessor and general election rival Donald Trump while unveiling plans to quicken permanent residency for people living in the country unlawfully while married to Americans and to speed up work permits for non-citizens who graduate from US colleges.
Biden began his remarks by erroneously suggesting a “significant portion” of his early 2021 immigration policy proposals were “being passed,” before correcting himself to say “by executive order.”
“Every nation must secure its borders — it’s just that simple,” the president said as he announced the more permissive policies.
“If Trump and the Republicans wouldn’t do it working with me, then I would do it on my own, and I did,” Biden said — referring to his June 4 executive order that threatened to halt asylum processing at the border if the average number of illegal arrivals crosses 2,500 per day in a week.
“We can both secure the border and provide legal pathways to citizenship,” the president continued.
“We have to acknowledge that the patience and goodwill of the American people is being tested by their fears of the border.
“They don’t understand a lot of it. These are the fears my predecessor is trying to prey on when he says immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood’ of the country.”
Biden and his aides described both reforms announced Tuesday as helping people gain status that they’re already able to acquire — but Republicans slammed the move as likely to prompt even more illegal immigration.
“Just two weeks ago, the president pretended to crack down on the open-border catastrophe by engaging [in] an election-year border charade. Now he’s trying to play both sides and is granting amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
“Americans know this amnesty plan will only incentivize more illegal immigration and endanger Americans,” Johnson said.
“This is proof-positive of the Democrats’ plan to turn illegal aliens into voters. I fully expect this order, which is manifestly contrary to the Immigration and Naturalization Act, to be challenged and struck down in the courts.”
People who illegally enter the US and marry an American currently can return to their home countries and apply for permanent residency.
But they can in some instances be subject to a 10-year or 20-year ban on reentry, resulting in many spouses of US citizens choosing not to go through the process.
Biden aides argued the reform to grant spouses permanent residency without leaving the US would not boost illegal immigration due to a requirement that spouses live in the US for 10 years prior to receiving the benefit and be present as of the date of the new policy’s adoption.
The 500,000 expected spousal beneficiaries have been in the US for 23 years on average, an official said. They have an estimated 50,000 non-citizen children who also would benefit from the new policies.
The work visa reform, meanwhile, would seek to hasten visa processing for foreign-citizenship students who graduate US colleges — despite an existing visa-processing backlog — and would benefit people who hold Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status as well as other non-citizen college graduates.
“DHS will be joining the Department of State in an effort to more efficiently facilitate certain employment based non-immigrant visas for eligible individuals, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA recipients and other ‘dreamers’ who have graduated from an accredited US institution of higher education and who have received an offer of employment from a US employer,” a second official said.
“By clarifying and enhancing the existing process, the Department of State’s policy will give US employers increased confidence that they can hire the talent they need and that they will be able to quickly get to work.”
The nearly 600,0000 DACA holders have been shielded from deportation since 2012 and granted work permits through a program established by then-President Barack Obama, but slow processing times have forced many recipients to temporarily leave their jobs or take leave.
The new initiatives come as polls consistently show that immigration policy is one of Biden’s biggest liabilities after he presided over a record-breaking surge of illegal immigrants, most of whom were allowed into the US to await badly backlogged asylum proceedings.
Former President Donald Trump, who will face Biden in a rematch on Nov. 5, is campaigning on a pledge to mass-deport illegal immigrants.
A CBS News/YouGov poll this month found 62% of registered voters favor “a new national program to deport all undocumented immigrants” — with 53% of Hispanic voters also backing the proposed mass-deportation of those who arrived illegally.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that “Biden doesn’t care about the American lives that will forever be destroyed by the illegal criminals he is importing; and Biden doesn’t care that law-abiding taxpayers, crushed by inflation, are forced to pay for free food, housing, and healthcare for illegals.”
“Biden only cares about one thing — power — and that’s why he is giving mass amnesty and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegals who he knows will ultimately vote for him and the Open Border Democrat Party,” Leavitt said.
“Biden’s mass amnesty plan will undoubtedly lead to a greater surge in migrant crime, cost taxpayers millions of dollars they cannot afford, overwhelm public services, and steal Social Security and Medicare benefits from American seniors to fund benefits for illegals — draining the programs Americans paid into their entire working lives. Biden has created another invitation for illegal immigration through his mass amnesty order.”
Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller, an advocate of hardline immigration policies, cited recent crimes involving alleged illegal immigrants in arguing against the lastest Biden actions.
“Biden lets in an illegal alien wanted for murder who allegedly breaks into a home, attacks a young girl, absconds, then rapes and beats and violently murders a mother of five and his administration’s response? Bypass Congress to give unconstitutional mass amnesty to illegals,” Miller tweeted.
The border crisis began during Biden’s first year in office as he used executive powers to unilaterally end Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that required most asylum seekers to remain in Mexico as US immigration courts reviewed their claims of persecution and halted construction of his US-Mexico border wall.
A record nearly 2.5 million people were apprehended after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30.
Almost half of those busted crossing the US border between designated checkpoints in fiscal 2023 — 1.1 million people — were released into the US, according to Department of Homeland Security data reported by the Congressional Budget Office — in addition to an estimated 860,000 “got-aways” who evaded authorities.
December saw an all-time monthly record with more than 302,000 people arrested for illegally entering from Mexico.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who was impeached in February by House Republicans for allegedly failing to secure the border, said in January that there was an upward trend in the number of migrants released after illegally crossing the border, with the figure topping 85% at the time.
