BALTIMORE — Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday offered House Democrats a “passionate” defense of the Obama administration’s recent move to apprehend and deport dozens of illegal immigrants, but said the move, which angered Democrats, is the result of a broken immigration system.
“The vice president was very passionate about this,” Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said after the meeting. “And he made it very clear the administration is trying to do its best to enforce a broken immigration system and that these are the consequences of having a broken immigration system.”
Biden, who took questions from Democrats at their annual retreat, told lawmakers the Obama administration has deported just 67 people of the 121 people that were arrested in a recent series of raids, according to Becerra.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., emerged from the meeting and said the term “raid” wasn’t appropriate.
“It’s been reported as widespread raids, but there weren’t raids,” she said after the meeting with Biden, which was closed to the media. Those who were deported, Pelosi said, “were individuals who either had broken the law in ways other than [illegal] status, or were newcomers to the country.”
Democrats offered different explanations as to why the administration decided to embark on deporting dozens of people.
Becerra said Biden blamed the GOP for suing to block Obama’s executive actions that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain in the country.
Pelosi said the arrests are meant to warn Central Americans not to send their children here illegally but rather apply for refugee status in their home country. “This is also a message to Central America that it is better if we can adjudicate these cases, where people have their due process, there,” she said.
On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson sent a letter to Democrats defending the deportations, arguing that those caught at the border do not necessarily qualify for refugee status.
Congressional Democrats have been battling the Obama administration for weeks over the deportation efforts, which began around Christmas. Democrats are angry they were not consulted about the operation and believe it should stop.
