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President Joe Biden said his new changes to immigration policy will make it easier for immigrants to get to the US without going through “some jungle” to get to a place where they don’t even know the language.
He made the statement at a press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City at the end of the ‘Tres Amigos’ summit, after announcing new plans to allow 30,000 migrants a month from certain countries to apply to enter the country legally and work for up to two years, in an effort to deter illegal migration at the border.
“We’re trying to make it easier for people to get here … but not put them through this terrible process,” he said. Biden then described some of the brutalities of the long journey migrants make to try to reach the US.
The comments came during a press conference that lasted more than an hour, and where Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador thanked him for not funding Donald Trump’s border wall construction anymore, then went on to a twisting description of drug trafficking. and made a probable reference to the television series drug traffickers. Only after that soliloquy was Biden able to make his first comments about the discovery of classified documents from his vice presidency in his former DC office.
President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leave after speaking to the press at the ‘Tres Amigos’ summit. Biden said new policies allowing immigrants to apply online would make it easier for them to come to the US.
Speaking about the ins and outs of migration, Biden said: “It’s not like people sitting in your hometown are saying, ‘Let’s sell everything we’ve got, give it to a coyote, go through some jungles on the long road to America. “. United States… leave us a dessert, wouldn’t that be fun in a country where you don’t even speak the language? Biden said.
That came after left-wing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador praised Biden for halting the construction of Donald Trump’s border wall.
‘You are the first president of the United States in a long time who has not built even a meter of wall. And that we thank you for that, sir, he said.
He also said Bien’s new plan to parole citizens of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba would expand beyond that number, a possibility the White House did not rule out at a briefing this week.
‘I understand that this plan will also be extended, it will be expanded [to include] other immigrants, other countries,’ he said.
And López Obrador congratulated Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Canada’s program to benefit 25,000 Mexicans with temporary worker visas in Canada.
‘This is a path forward that is orderly migration. Prime Minister Trudeau is a great ally of Mexico,’ he said.
López Obrador, known for giving lengthy daily press conferences and once spoke at length in the Oval Office while meeting with Biden, criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s move to send immigrants north of the border.
‘One of the governors of our neighboring country… movement to take immigrants to New York, to Washington, and just leave them there. This is politicking. This is completely inhumane. This should not be done because there are those who forget that we are all migrants,’ he said.
And he insisted that “there was no corruption” in his government, days after the arrest by the Mexican authorities of a powerful drug trafficker, Ovidio Guzmán, son of “El Chapo.”
Mexican President López Obrador thanked Biden for building ‘not one meter of wall’
Biden made his first border visit as president on Sunday
“There are even shows about gangs and organized crime, organized crime gangs,” López Obrador said, likely referencing the Netflix drama Narcos.
The leaders spoke after their meeting at the National Palace in the heart of Mexico City
“There is no corruption in our administration, the government that I represent,” he said.
“We have painted this line, it is very clear,” he continued. ‘There is no criminal association or society like before.’
“There are even series about gangs and organized crime, organized crime gangs,” López Obrador said, likely referencing the Netflix drama, drug traffickers.
He said that the leads had “very wealthy homes in those series”. Very luxurious homes. And the cars. Men, women, all very good looking, very handsome men and women dressed in jewelery everywhere,’ he said, earning laughter from the crowd of dignitaries and the press.
‘They pick up the phone and call the head of the police, the head of the armed forces or even the president of a country. And that’s what’s spreading everywhere,’ he complained.
Biden also referenced his three-hour visit Sunday to the border in El Paso, his first trip to the border as president.
He said he went to ‘see the situation with my own eyes’.
“It is putting real pressure on communities both in Mexico and in the United States,” he said. He said the new policy, which also involves Mexico accepting 30,000 migrants each month that the United States sends back, “respects the laws of our nations and protects the human rights of migrants facing desperate circumstances.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made his own remarks, speaking of the benefits of free trade, while avoiding being pinned down on whether Canada would seek to raise a force in Haiti amid the chaos there.
He once again spoke in English and French, after Biden said he wished he had studied more at university after hearing Trudeau speak French on Monday.
“Thank you, merci, thank you,” he said at the end of his comments.