2024-01-27 13:00:00
President Joe Biden asked the Senate to continue bipartisan negotiations and approve a reform to immigration laws that allows the Government to close the border with Mexico if it is “collapsed.”
In a statement issued Friday night by the White House, Biden specified that, if the Senate approves the measures that have been discussed for more than two months behind closed doors between senators of both parties, “it would give me, as president, a new emergency authority to close the border when overwhelmed.”
“And if I had that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill,” he said.
The previous week, Trump had written on the Truth social network that “we should not reach a border agreement.” During the victory speech in New Hampshire, the former president hinted that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson (R-Calif.) was not going to allow an eventual agreement in the Senate to be approved.
“It’s time to solve it”
In Biden’s brief statement, the president said that the border issue “it is time to solve it.” And he noted: “Two months ago I directed my team to begin negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators to seriously and finally address the border crisis.”
“For weeks now that is what they have done. Working 24 hours a day, during holidays and weekends,” she indicated.
Detailing some of the content of the bipartisan talks, which have so far been kept secret, Biden said that “what has been negotiated would be – if signed into law – the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border that have ever been made.” we have had in our country.”
He added that “it would give me, as president, new emergency authority to close the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if I had that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill.”
Biden insists on emergency funds
Biden further said in the statement that “Congress needs to finally provide the funds I requested in October to secure the border.”
The request indicated by the president, which amounts to $14 billion dollars within a million-dollar aid package for Ukraine and Israel, includes the hiring of 1,300 additional border patrol agents, 375 immigration judges, 1,600 asylum officers and more of 100 state-of-the-art inspection machines to help detect and stop fentanyl at our southwest border.
“Securing the border through these negotiations is a victory for the United States,” said the president. And he further said that “for all those demanding stricter border control, this is the way to do it.”
Unlike Trump’s strategy, who demands the closure of the border to put an end to illegal immigration and threatens to deport all undocumented immigrants from the first minute of his government, if he wins he returns to the White House, Biden insists in defending and protecting respect for due immigration process, allowing immigration judges to ultimately resolve the future of asylum seekers.
“If you are serious about the border crisis, pass a bipartisan bill and I will sign it,” the statement concludes.
December numbers on the border
“In December 2023, the United States Border Patrol recorded 249,785 encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border. And total CBP encounters along the southwest border in December were 302,034,” the report states.
The agency, which operates under the command of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), further said that “historical trends and increased law enforcement, the first two weeks of January 2024 saw a more than 50% decrease in encounters on the southwest border between ports of entry, according to preliminary figures.”
CBP also said that the CBP One mobile app continues to be “a key component of DHS’s efforts to encourage noncitizens to use legal, safe, humane and orderly pathways and discourage attempts to cross between ports of entry.”
The report notes that in December, CBP “processed approximately 45,770 individuals through appointments at ports of entry, using advanced information presented in CBP One.” Since the introduction of the tool in January 2023 until the end of December, “approximately 413,300 people have successfully scheduled appointments to appear at ports of entry, with Venezuelans, Mexicans and Haitians being the main favored nationalities.”
For their part, until the end of December, 327,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans arrived legally under conditional release processes (humanitarian parole). Of them, more than 69,000 Cubans, 133,000 Haitians, 60,000 Nicaraguans and 87,000 Venezuelans were examined and authorized to travel. “And more than 67,000 Cubans, 126,000 Haitians, 53,000 Nicaraguans and 81,000 Venezuelans arrived and were granted conditional release,” the report states.
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