President Joe Biden denied his administration is considering deporting major numbers of non-Mexican immigrants, saying he didn’t think there was a need to do that even if pandemic-era border restrictions are lifted.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden denied his administration is considering deporting major numbers of non-Mexican immigrants, saying he didn’t think there was a need to do that even if pandemic-era border restrictions are lifted.
Biden called such reports “completely wrong” in an interview with Telemundo on Thursday and highlighted humanitarian parole programs already in place for some countries, aimed at curbing the number of migrants seeking to cross the US southern border illegally.
“First of all, we engaged the parole policy for those five: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba. And the immigration, the number of people coming has declined over 90% because there’s a regular path to do it now,” said Biden.
That policy, expanded last month, allows authorities to quickly expel migrants from those countries using a controversial public health rule known as Title 42. The administration has sought to lift the pandemic border restrictions, but the Supreme Court has ordered Title 42 remain in effect while litigation over it proceeds.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the administration is in talks with Mexico to allow the US to deport large numbers of non-Mexican migrants there, as authorities prepare for the end of Title 42. The Department of Homeland Security denied the report.
“Reports that we are considering mass deportations of non-Mexicans to Mexico are false,” DHS spokeswoman Marsha Espinosa said. “We’re focused on continuing to work closely with the government of Mexico to implement our successful border enforcement plan. That plan has already resulted in the lowest level of border encounters between ports of entry in two years.”
Asked if he would consider deportations of non-Mexican immigrants if Title 42 is lifted, Biden said,“I don’t think we have to do that, we have to consider that.”
Historic numbers of migrants at the southwest border have dogged Biden since his inauguration. But his effort to stem them using tougher enforcement has angered immigrant-rights activists, who also say he has been too slow to roll back former President Donald Trump’s hard-line policies.
Biden during his State of the Union address urged Congress to pass changes to immigration law, including more border funding and a citizenship path for certain undocumented immigrants, including those brought to the US as children, farm hands, essential workers and those on temporary status.
Earlier: Biden Pushes Pared-Down Border Security, Dreamers Bill
He said only congressional action can alleviate the situation at the border. But such legislation is unlikely to pass the divided Congress, where the Republican-run House is dead set against the president’s policies and blame them for causing the border crisis.
“I’m making sure that we ask the Congress to provide us more security at the border. Number one,” said Biden on Thursday. “More agents. Number two. Number three, more sophisticated machinery. For example, we have these, basically, moving X-ray machines that can X-ray about everything. Well, we need about 54 of them. We have 15.”
Some Republicans yelled at Biden to “secure the border” when the president spoke about his plan and shouted “it’s your fault,” when he mentioned fentanyl coming across the border.
The changes Biden proposed are narrower than the sweeping measure he put forward on his first day in office, which would have offered a path to citizenship for the vast majority of the 11 million immigrants living illegally in the US.
That proposal failed to gain traction during the president’s first two years in office, when both sides of the Capitol were in Democratic hands. Nonetheless, his latest offer would represent the most significant changes to US immigration law in decades were they to become law.
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