President Biden said that all migrant families detained on the southern border should be sent away, but not because Mexico refuses to take them all.
“Some families are not coming back because Mexico refuses to take them back. Some, not all,” the president said at his first news conference on Thursday.
“We are in negotiations with Mexico. This is gonna change. They should all come back, ”he continued.
Still, Biden reiterated the message that no unaccompanied migrants under the age of 18 will be rejected at the border.
The Biden government, facing an increase in the border that could reach its maximum in 20 years, repeated the message that the border “is not open” in seemingly useless efforts to prevent the crossing of the border.
The message that all families should be sent away is a strong message from the new president, who has promised more humane immigration policies than the Trump administration.
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In February, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) allowed nearly 59% of migrant families to remain in the United States pending a final decision on whether to be removed under a separate provision called Title 8.
In February, there were 19,246 meetings in total with migrant families on the southern border. Of those meetings, 7,915 were expelled from the country under the order of Trump-era health, Title 42 and 11,331 were allowed to stay.
In January, CBP expelled 4,546 family units under Title 42 of 7,294 encounters, just over 62%.
Biden was asked if his message that he would not refuse children had prompted families to send their children on the dangerous journey from Central America to the southern border of the United States.
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“The idea that I will say … unaccompanied migrant children, let’s just let them starve to death, no previous administration has done that except Trump. I’m not going to do that, ”said Biden. He said he would instead focus on the “fundamental reasons” that Latin Americans send their children to the border – earthquakes, floods and gang violence.
Biden was also asked whether he acted “too quickly” to reverse the Trump administration’s immigration policy, such as the “Stay in Mexico” program. He said these Trump policies “were not helping at all, they were not slowing immigration.”
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“I do not apologize for that, for ending programs that did not exist before Trump became president and that have an incredibly negative impact on law, international law, as well as human dignity,” said Biden.