White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said if President Biden’s recent comments on immigration differed in any way from comments he criticized then-President Donald Trump as “racist” in 2018, , said there are “different definitions” of what it means to be asked to close borders. . ”
“Back in the winter of 2018, In the spring of 2019, President Trump vowed to close the border with Mexico in much the same language the president used on Friday. Almost all, if not most, Democrats called it xenophobic and even racist. “Why shouldn’t people draw the same conclusion about the president’s threat to close the entire border with Mexico?” a reporter asked the spokesperson on Monday.
“We believe that the new enforcement tools that currently don’t exist that will be part of this bipartisan agreement will be fair. We believe… it will be tough, but it will be fair. Deaf,” replied M. Jean-Pierre.
Additionally, Biden did not say last week that his administration would “increase enforcement to improve the processing of people at the border,” but instead said Biden was much more forceful and said he would close the border. It was done.
Flashback: President Trump’s border wall was called ‘racist’ and ‘anti-immigrant’ by liberal media for years
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made the remarks at a press conference on January 24th. (Andrew Thomas/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Why isn’t that the same as what President Trump did?” the reporter asked after a brief exchange with Jean-Pierre.
“There are different definitions of what it looks like, right? What it looks like to actually close the borders, right? So we ask them to work it out. I don’t know what exactly that looks like. What we’re asking for, what the president wants is to address the challenges at the border, what happens. “It’s about making sure we have the opportunity and the funding and resources to deal with what we’re seeing at the border safely.”
“There are different definitions of what that is.”
Biden administration accused of hypocrisy over border wall proposal amid migrant crisis
Biden vowed on Friday to “close the border” if Congress passes a bipartisan immigration deal, saying it would give him “emergency powers” to stop the influx of migrants who surged to the border during his administration.
“We all know that for too long, our borders have been destroyed,” he said. “It’s long past time to fix that.”
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House on Wednesday, December 13, 2023 in Washington, DC, USA. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“What we have negotiated so far, if passed into law, would be the toughest and fairest reform to secure our nation’s borders to date,” Biden said. “It would give me new emergency powers as president to close the border in the event of border congestion. If given that power, I would exercise it the same day I signed the bill into law. ”
Biden promises to ‘close’ border if Congress approves Republican bill ‘encourages illegal immigration’
President Trump was labeled a “racist” by Democrats and other critics in November 2018 and again in March 2019 for threatening to close the border if Mexico did not stop illegal entry into the United States. Condemned.
“If obstructionist Democrats don’t give us the money to finish the wall and change the ridiculous immigration laws our country is under, we will be forced to close our southern border completely. .It’s hard to believe there was a Congress and a president who would do something like that.” Approved! ” Trump said in a series of tweets in 2018.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Dayton International Airport on November 7, 2022 in Vandalia, Ohio. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
President Trump tweeted again in 2019: “If Mexico does not immediately stop all illegal immigration entering the United States through our southern border, we will close our border, or a large portion of our border, next week.”
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Critics have launched attacks on such plans as racist, including in 2019 when the Southern Poverty Law Center claimed the plans were “illegal” and President Trump called them “legal.” “Using fear tactics to portray migrant migrants as a security threat.”
