by Kaylee Greenlee
President Donald Trump criticized presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s plans to allow 125,000 refugees admittance to the U.S. on an annual basis during a speech in Minnesota on Monday, the Associated Press reported.
“He [Biden] would overwhelm Minnesota with refugees, from terror hotspots, depleting public services, burdening schools, and straining city budgets,” Trump said during a speech on a tarmac in Minnesota, the AP reported.
Trump capped refugee admissions for 2020 at 18,000, according to a White House statement. Under Trump’s conditions, refugees will be admitted under humanitarian concerns or if their admittance is of national interest.
When we said to give us your tired, poor, and huddled masses, we absolutely did not mean "unless they are fleeing violence." https://t.co/OeIWRpPC8I
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 14, 2020
Biden said in an op-ed for Foreign Affairs in January that he would ensure due process is held for immigrants, that families can stay together when crossing the border, and that he would not “target particular communities.”
“I will immediately reverse the Trump administration’s cruel and senseless policies that separate parents from their children at our border; end Trump’s detrimental asylum policies; terminate the travel ban; order a review of Temporary Protected Status, for vulnerable populations; and set our annual refugee admissions at 125,000, and seek to raise it over time, commensurate with our responsibility and our values,” Biden said in Foreign Affairs.
Trump said in his speech Monday that Biden plans to “increase refugee resettlement” by “700%,” however, a change from 18,000 to 125,000 would be an increase of 594%.
“I will secure our borders while ensuring the dignity of migrants and upholding their legal right to seek asylum,” Biden said in Foreign Affairs. “I have released plans that outline these policies in detail and describe how the United States will focus on the root causes driving immigrants to our southwestern border.”
Biden’s campaign website details his plans to “surge humanitarian efforts to the border” to assist refugees, reinstate eligibility for immigrants seeking asylum citing domestic abuse, and ending for-profit detention centers.
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Kaylee Greenlee is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Joe Biden” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
