President Joe Biden cast blame on the Trump administration for the mass migration that has engulfed the U.S. southern border since January and hurt his chances at passing immigration reform in his first 100 days.
“When I was vice president, I focused on providing the help needed to address these root causes of migration. It helped keep people in their own countries instead of being forced to leave. Our plan worked, but the last administration shut it down,” Biden said in prepared remarks for a speech before select members of Congress on Capitol Hill Wednesday night.
His comments were vague, not naming the plan or going into detail about what measures were in place under former President Barack Obama, whom he served under from 2009 to 2017.
Former President Donald Trump temporarily suspended foreign aid to Central American countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where most unaccompanied migrant children and families arriving at the border at present are traveling from.
UNPRECEDENTED BORDER CRISES TAKE OVER BIDEN’S FIRST 100 DAYS
Vice President Kamala Harris has committed to sending an additional $310 million in foreign aid to Central American countries in an effort to resolve root causes of treks by tens of thousands of people to the U.S. southern border each month.
The Biden administration, since taking office, has focused on dealing with the root causes that prompt so many to leave their homes. Biden called for spending $861 million in foreign aid to Central America in his fiscal year 2022 budget proposal. The figure is considerably higher than the $560 million spent in 2017 and $462 million in 2018.
Biden ordered lawmakers in the House chamber to “end the exhausting war over immigration” by passing his U.S. Citizenship Act.
“If you believe we need a secure border, pass it. If you believe in a pathway to citizenship, pass it,” he said. “We also have to get at the root of the problem of why people are fleeing to our southern border from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. The violence. The corruption. The gangs. The political instability. Hunger. Hurricanes. Earthquakes.”
Biden endorsed Harris’s work, whom he tasked earlier this year with overseeing diplomatic efforts to slow down the rush of migrants to the southern border.
In a response to Biden’s speech emailed to reporters, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee said that “Biden’s open borders agenda created a border crisis, and now it is raging at historic levels.”
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Biden’s comprehensive immigration bill has yet to move through Congress, but he called on Republicans and Democrats to create a pathway to citizenship and other legal protections for people living in the country illegally, including children brought here by parents and people who are protected from deportation due to their home country’s inability to resettle them.
