Joe Biden promised to ‘absorb’ 2 million asylum seekers ‘in a heartbeat’ in 2019 - he now faces an immigration crisis
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/07/politics/kfile-biden-2-million-migrants-asylum-seekers-immigration-crisis/index.html
CNN
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During his 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised a stark departure from the immigration policies of the Trump administration.
He pledged a 100-day moratorium on deportations after taking office. He promised to protect sanctuary cities from federal law enforcement agencies. And he harshly criticized the Trump administration’s treatment of undocumented immigrants at the southern border, asserting that America had the capacity to “absorb people” while calling on asylum seekers to “surge” to the border
“We could afford to take in a heartbeat another two million,” Biden said at one event in August 2019. “The idea that a country of 330 million people cannot absorb people who are in desperate need and who are justifiably fleeing oppression is absolutely bizarre.”
An estimated 3 million migrants who have been encountered at the southern border since Biden took office in January 2021 remain in the US, according to figures flagged by the Biden administration.
At a Democratic debate in September 2019, Biden said as president he would do “several more things.”
“I would in fact make sure that there is – we immediately surge to the border all those people are seeking asylum. They deserve to be heard. That’s who we are,” Biden said.
“We’re a nation that says, ‘If you wanna flee and you’re fleeing oppression, you should come,’” he added.
During his 2020 presidential campaign against Donald Trump, Biden was in a much different position as illegal border crossings were significantly lower than they are today.