The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.

The White House statement comes after a week of frantic negotiations in the Senate.

President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to pass a bipartisan bill to address the immigration crisis at the nation’s southern border, saying he would shut down the border the day the bill became law.

“What’s been negotiated would — if passed into law — be the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country,” Biden said in a statement. “It would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed. And if given that authority, I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”

Biden’s Friday evening statement resembles a ramping up in rhetoric for the administration, placing the president philosophically in the camp arguing that the border may hit a point where closure is needed. The White House’s decision to have Biden weigh in also speaks to the delicate nature of the dealmaking, and the urgency facing his administration to take action on the border — particularly during an election year, when Republicans have used the issue to rally their base.

The president is also daring Republicans to reject the deal as it faces a make-or-break moment amid GOP fissures.

  • Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world
    71·
    11 months ago

    It just looked like resentment that they were arriving in blue states and sanctuary cities. The same places that have long described immigrants as net positives.

    I think it’s more that they’re being dropped off with no communication, coordination, planning, or notice at all. Just random bus loads of immigrants arriving in the night thinking there will be resources there to help them.

    Oh, and then you get the obvious PR moves like bus loads showing up unannounced at the Vice President’s official residence in the middle of the night during a time where the temperatures were dangerously low. It’s sick – just using immigrants as a PR stunt to “own the libs.”

    • APassenger@lemmy.world
      33·
      11 months ago

      Significant portions of those involved on the thread were sure it was human trafficking. Spoke and voted that way.

      I’m not saying the stunt portion of bussing is okay. But finding a term that diminishes the agency of immigrants and makes their appearance in blue areas the act of unlawful human trafficking (a specific and high bar to cross)… It just seemed convenient that everything about the arrival of immigrants was wrong.

      I work with immigrants. They’re smart, capable and just want a shot at the dream. I’m not against immigration. I’m against lemmy seeming to find convenient reasons why it’s okay to happen until it happens nearby.

      Those threads are not hard to find.

      Texas is not responsible to house every immigrant that crosses the border. You didn’t say it, but others imply it.