Washington – A group of Senate Democrats is pressuring President Biden to act to “protect immigrant families” in the final weeks of his presidency, as President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office next month.
The group of senators, led by Democratic Whip Dick Dick, said, “As senators representing diverse states across our country and collectively representing millions of immigrant families, we stand by the incoming administration's efforts to protect immigrants in our communities. We write to express our deep concern about the threat posed.” Durbin of Illinois wrote in a Letter To the President on Monday.
Senators cited Trump threat of mass deportation They say it would “jeopardize the safety and security of millions of families”, “create deep mistrust and fear” in communities and “destabilize the American economy.” And he urged Mr. Biden to take a number of actions before Trump's inauguration, stressing that “the window to secure and finalize your administration's policies is rapidly closing.”
“We urge you to act decisively between now and the President-elect's inauguration to build on the important work of the past four years and protect immigrant families,” Durbin said in the letter. The letter has also been signed by New York's Senator Cory Booker. Jersey, Katherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico and Alex Padilla of California.
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Among the requests, the group asked the President to prioritize redesignating and expanding Temporary Protected Status to all eligible countries, which allows immigrants from countries facing unsafe conditions to remain in the US legally. Gives. The group also asked the President to speed up the processing of benefit requests. Recipients of DACA, the program for millions of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children and granted protection from deportation.
The push comes as Trump has made clear his intention to enact a sweeping overhaul of immigration policy, which became a key part of his campaign as he sought to target both unauthorized and legal immigrants with unprecedented measures. Had promised.
In an interview on NBC's “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, he repeated several pledges, including that he “absolutely” still plans to. abolish birthright citizenship On the first day of his presidency. He also made it clear that he plans to follow through on his mass deportation pledge, starting with criminals.
When host Kristen Welker asked whether it was possible to deport everyone living in the U.S. illegally, Trump responded that “you don't have a choice.” He said his administration would “start with the criminals” before others, noting that “we'll see how it goes.”
On DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, Trump said he would work with Democrats on a plan, claiming “Republicans are very open to Dreamers.”
“I want to be able to do something,” Trump said, indicating he wants DACA recipients to remain. Legislative efforts to codify the DACA program have failed for more than a decade, and Republican-led states have filed several lawsuits over the years claiming the program is unconstitutional. The newly elected President attempted to end the program during his first administration.
On immigrant families more broadly, Trump stressed that he “doesn't want to break up families,” adding that “the only way to break up a family is not to put them together and you have to send them all back.” would send. “
In their letter, the senators said that while they support “normal” border security measures, they “will continue to oppose any policy contrary to our country's core values.”
Contributed to this report.