Biden calls for making Dreamers citizens, in new immigration plan
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Former Vice President Joe Biden , while accusing President Trump of “vilifying immigrants” to "scare" voters, urged Congress to make so-called Dreamers citizens in his newly released campaign proposal to roll back the Trump administration's policies on illegal immigration.
The Democratic presidential primary front-runner’s proposals, published Monday morning in English and Spanish in the Miami Herald and its Spanish publication El Nuevo Herald, were as much of a blueprint of what he would do in the White House as they were a blistering critique of Trump’s record on the divisive issue.
Pointing to the Republican president’s threat last week of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation raids across the country, Biden argued that it’s “clear Trump is only interested in using his policies to assault the dignity of the Latin community and scare voters to turn out on Election Day, while not addressing the real challenges facing our hemisphere.”
Biden also highlighted the detention of migrant children at the nation’s southern border, implemented last year as part of the administration’s zero-tolerance policy. Accusing Trump of “racist invective,” the former vice president said “under Trump, there have been horrifying scenes at the border of kids being kept in cages, tear-gassing asylum seekers, ripping children from their mothers’ arms — actions that subvert American values and erode our ability to lead on the global stage.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he “inherited” the policy from his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.
Biden, who served eight years as vice president under Obama, urged that “the next president must institute effective immigration reform while restoring regional policies grounded in respect.”
“Our asylum system needs to be improved, but the answer is to streamline and strengthen it so that it benefits legitimate claims of those fleeing persecution, while reducing potential for abuse,” he said.
Biden also called for giving U.S. citizenship to the thousands of young undocumented immigrants brought into the country illegally by their parents, saying they are "Americans, and Congress needs to make it official."
These so-called Dreamers – thousands of young undocumented immigrants brought into the country illegally by their parents – were granted legal protections through the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Trump has sought to end that status.
"The millions of undocumented people in the United States can only be brought out of the shadows through fair treatment, not ugly threats," Biden said. "Trump’s efforts to repeal Temporary Protected Status (TPS) across the board have injected unnecessary uncertainty into the lives of thousands of families.”
Still, Biden said “it’s imperative that we secure our borders.” But he argued that Trump’s campaign promise to “build the wall” along the U.S. border with Mexico “is a slogan divorced from reality.”
Biden said, if elected, he would “focus instead on improving screening procedures at our legal ports of entry and making smart investments in border technology. These are sensible policies that will do more for our security than a wall ever could.”
Biden also criticized Trump’s diplomatic efforts in Venezuela, arguing Trump "has badly misjudged what it will take to bring democracy back to Venezuela, and his increasing belligerence threatens the international coalition of more than 50 countries that recognize Juan Guaido as the interim President of Venezuela.”
But he didn’t mention that Trump was the first world leader to recognize Guaido as the legitimate leader of Venezuela and helped build a coalition of countries that oppose the regime of Nicolas Maduro.
Trump has accused the Obama administration of failing to place enough tough sanctions on Maduro’s regime.
The release of Biden’s proposal comes three days after not appearing for a National Association of Latino Elected Officials conference that was attended by eight of his rivals for the Democratic nomination.
Biden was criticized by Latino leaders for skipping the conference. The event was held in Miami, which will also be the site of this week’s first round of Democratic primary debates.
By Paul Steinhauser
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Vic,
Your article is kind of a mixed bag. I am for letting the dreamers become citizens. I am not for letting any of the new detainees in unless they can prove their life is in imminent danger, which most of them are not.
So there I stand with Biden.
I do agree that Obama didn't do enough in Venezuela sanction wise. Trump has done that. Biden missing the meeting could be for any number of reasons, and Trump wasn't there either. I am not throwing stones at either of them.
Why is it that things have to be so partisan?
And that's making the people starve, not hurting the people who are screwing up the country. There never seems to be a good answer as to what we should do in these situations. Interfere and often make things worse (even if we don't realize it for years), or do nothing and watch it get worse anyway.
That is also going on in Iran. I'm not so sure that is the right thing to do with them.
So how do we handle a situation like in these countries? It never hurts the leadership, only the people.
Just as when we provide aid, it often never gets to the people. I wish I had the answer.
The United States exploited Central America for many decades. The immigration problem is our karma the same way migration into Europe from Africa is their karma.
What we should do is everything we can to make Central American countries better places to live.
Where have you been? We already tried that. Wasted how many billions dollars with nothing to show for it. But keep sending money. Money fixes everything.
https://www.apnews.com/0fcda32812024680ad98676379c47233
10 plus billion dollars in new money and they are still coming. Probably because they know their governments will waste it; and have to beg for more.
If you are interested here is a web site that shows US foreign aide by country.
What we should do is everything we can to make Central American countries better places to live.
Another dumb idea that has no practical answer of solution
I have to agree with you here. My only questions would be how and where do draw the line on who is considered a "Dreamer"? Will they set a time limit as to if someone was in the country before a certain date and what would be the cutoff date? Without that, it is a revolving open door.
Most of these young people were brought here by their parents as infants and children and have lived here all their lives, been schooled and have jobs here. I realize that they should have applied for citizenship when they realized their status, but I don't think they should be punished for what their parents did, and be deported. Unless they have some criminal history, they should be put on a fast track to citizenship.
yep. and Trump offered a path to citizenship for these children along with some other fixes to immigration and was turned down. IMO he's been trying to make deals to help fix the problem but the two party system has gotten to a point where all they will do is fight each other.
Sounds good. But to do that, you are probably going to have to restrict the conditions that qualify for asylum and/or tighten the rules on how a person may apply. You may have to disqualify some people if they violate those rules. How is that going to go over in his party?
I'm for this IF you can find a way to stop people illegally dragging their kids to this country (or making anchor babies) in the future. Otherwise, it is a clear invitation to keep rushing the border with a kid in tow.
"Improving screening procedures" sounds fine, but you can't screen people if they don't go through the legal port of entry. People aren't avoiding the ports of entry because they don't like the screening process. They avoid them because they don't want to wait for approval to enter or they know they won't get that approval.
If you can show us an electronic gizmo that works better and cheaper than a physical barrier, I'm sure the Border Patrol and most of America would be happy to have it. It's not like America has a wall fetish per se. It just so happens that they are pretty effective . I think most Americans would prefer a countryside uncluttered by an unsightly wall or fence. We just want to know the border is as secure as it can reasonably be.
There are better alternatives to walls. Even Israel is trying to reinforce their wall, since they dig under it. Also, everyone is forgetting the Gulf of Mexico as a route in. Build the wall, and they will just reroute. There is better high tech methods to use, but I guess a barrier of some sort is a short term solution.
Interesting article on this:
If a wall is built and the numbers of border crossings dont go way down, and by some miracle trump is still president at the time, he will claim that he was forced to accept this result by the Democrats. He will never take responsibility for a damn thing.
But that if is never going to happen. Trump gets to correctly claim that the dems obstructed me all the way. He WINS on that!
No, it's Trump's m.o.
Sorry, but your link is both outdated and factually lacking
1. since it was written we have record border crossings, not record lows
2. no one has proposed outmoded fence technology such as the writer criticizes. We want to replace the kind he criticizes
3. NO ONE including Trump has proposed a border wall along the entire southern border.
4. The problem with surveillance technology is that it can only detect and report illegal crossings. That is too late,, especially since the Democrats want them to stay here if they get across