The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.

The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.

President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to pass a bipartisan bill to address the immigration crisis at the nation’s southern border, saying he would shut down the border the day the bill became law.

“What’s been negotiated would — if passed into law — be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country,” Biden said in a statement. “It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”

Biden’s Friday evening statement resembles a ramping up in rhetoric for the administration, placing the president philosophically in the camp arguing that the border may hit a point where closure is needed. The White House’s decision to have Biden weigh in also speaks to the delicate nature of the dealmaking, and the urgency facing his administration to take action on the border — particularly during an election year, when Republicans have used the issue to rally their base.

The president is also daring Republicans to reject the deal as it faces a make-or-break moment amid GOP fissures.

  • @Marcbmann
    1•11 months ago

    Here’s the thing. My wife originally came to the US on a tourist visa. She went through a long process to get that visa. I am concerned by the idea of people walking into the country without any screening whatsoever.

    I believe the majority of these immigrants are fine people. But with poverty comes crime, often out of necessity. And when these individuals enter the country illegally, it means they don’t have working papers. Depending on where they go, they won’t have driver’s licenses or insurance. They likely won’t have health insurance. Many won’t be paying taxes out of fear of deportation, and because they can get away with it. I’m not generalizing here - I have known many good people in this exact situation, and I know the challenges that come with being undocumented.

    My wife would tell you that she’s concerned with who may be coming over that border. I am concerned about what comes with a flood of persons who are destined to be stuck in the lower class.

    These are not unfair or unreasonable concerns. Look at the level of gang violence in Mexico. Nobody else is concerned that these persons can walk into the US without question? Nobody is thinking about what these people will do once here? I didn’t even touch on what working conditions look like, or housing, for undocumented immigrants.

    The people espousing that the open border is a non issue are living in a fairy tale with no regard for long term implications or the human element of what’s happening here

    • @MegaUltraChicken
      1•11 months ago

      Is there actually a large cohort of people that think we should have a completely open border with no screening process? I’ve never seen that advocated for outside of those who want to completely abolish Nation-States and that’s definitely not a large group.

      Devote proper resources to screen, process, and take care of these people. We aren’t doing that.

      • @Marcbmann
        1•11 months ago

        On Lemmy, absolutely.

        And, I mean look at the comments in general. Whenever this topic comes up people call it a non-issue, people say the issue doesn’t exist, people say who cares if people are coming over the border, you have people citing studies showing illegal immigrant populations are generally less violent than citizens. People want to justify the relative inaction of Biden. Now, I voted for the man, but this is absolutely disgusting.

        Now he’s claiming he doesn’t have authority to act. I’m sorry, but at this point I’ve seen more than enough in the way of arguments for the White House already having the necessary powers to secure the border. There has never been a point in Biden’s presidency where he did not have the authority to take the necessary action in securing the border.

        So yes, I do not believe we should have a wide open border that is a literal free-for-all like we have at this exact moment. I agree, we should be devoting proper resources to screen, process, and take care of the people that want to come into the country. We should be doing this the right way.