The Trump campaign on Tuesday slammed the Biden administration’s move to allow certain undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens to remain in the country and work legally, arguing it would lead to a surge in migrants.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said in a statement that immigrants are a burden on taxpayers and a strain on the social welfare system, and described Tuesday’s announcement as a “mass amnesty,” though to be eligible for parole candidates must have been in the United States for 10 years as of Monday.
“Biden cares about one thing and one thing only: power, which is why he’s granting mass amnesty and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who he knows will ultimately vote for him and the open-border Democrats,” Leavitt said.
“Biden’s mass amnesty plan will undoubtedly lead to a further surge in immigrant crime, cost taxpayers millions of dollars they cannot afford, strain public services, and deprive elderly Americans of Social Security and Medicare benefits to pay for benefits to illegal immigrants — draining the system that Americans have paid into their entire lives,” she added. “Through his mass amnesty order, Biden has created new opportunities for illegal immigration.”
Biden’s announcement came as he is scheduled to mark the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program at the White House with immigrant advocacy groups and Latino leaders.
The expansion of existing parole programs, known as the regularization program, comes in conjunction with measures to make it easier for undocumented immigrants who have graduated from U.S. universities, particularly DACA recipients, to apply for work visas.
Beneficiaries will not receive any new privileges, but existing methods for regularizing immigration status will be streamlined under the new rules.
Tuesday’s efforts came in the wake of a crackdown on migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border that has angered the same groups the new measures were designed to please.
Biden has been pushing for months for Congress to pass a bipartisan border security bill negotiated by the Senate, but has faced opposition from Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, who is considered the presumptive GOP nominee.
Trump and his campaign have repeatedly attacked Biden over immigration and border security, tying him to crimes allegedly committed by migrants and citing record numbers of detentions along the southern border.
