President Biden defended his pace of executive action as he signed another slate of orders rolling back some of former President Donald Trump’s signature immigration policies.
“There’s a lot of talk, with good reason, about the number of executive orders that I have signed,” Biden said Tuesday in the White House. “I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy.”
Biden signed 25 executive orders, 10 presidential memos, and four proclamations between Inauguration Day and Sunday, more actions than Trump and former President Barack Obama combined. That clip has rankled Republicans, such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who have complained Biden is governing by “fiat” when he promised a bipartisan approach to policymaking.
Biden added another three orders to his tally Tuesday. This round focused on immigration, including creating a task force to help reunite between 600 and 700 migrant families still separated under Trump’s so-called “zero tolerance” stance against illegal immigration. He also established another task force for “new Americans,” aimed at easing the integration process.
Biden described Trump’s immigration policies as being “very counterproductive” to national security and “our country.”
“We’re going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families,” he said.
Biden started his signing ceremony by commenting on the deaths of two FBI agents in Sunrise, Florida. They were killed Tuesday while serving a warrant on a man suspected of having child pornography. The president said his “heart aches for the families,” whom he is yet to contact, and that “it’s a hell of a price to pay.”
“The vast, vast majority of these men and women are decent, honorable people who put themselves on the line. We owe them,” he added.
