President Biden appoints VP Harris as “Lead Person” on Immigration

President Joe Biden announced he is assigning Vice President Kamala Harris to learn the root causes of immigration to the U.S. 

Biden held his first press conference since taking office and answered questions about immigration, the filibuster, covid-19 vaccinations, China, North Korea, and troops in Afghanistan. Immigration and access to immigration centers were the most common topics from the panel of journalists.

Biden claims that Trump “dismantled all the elements that exist to deal with what had been a problem and what have continued to be a problem for a long time.”

In order to help curb immigration Biden said he has asked Harris to be the lead person focusing on the fundamental reasons why people leave their home countries in the first place. 

“It’s because of earthquakes and floods, it’s because of lack of food and gang violence, it’s a whole range of things,” Biden said. 

Cecilia Vega from ABC News told a story of a nine-year-old boy she had met at the border. The boy had walked all the way from Honduras because according to Vega, his mother believed that Biden was not deporting unaccompanied minors. 

Biden again says that his administration will focus on the reason why immigrants leave their home countries. 

“When this hurricane occurred, two hurricanes, instead of us going down and helping in a major way, so that people did not have a reason to want to leave in the first place, we did nothing.” Biden continued, “We are going to be spending $700 million plus a year to change the lives and circumstances of why people leave in the first place.” 

Voting rights and Georgia’s recent voting law were common topics from the panel of journalists. Nancy Cordes from CBS asked if Biden was worried his party will lose seats if they do not pass voting rights legislation. 

“I am convinced that we’ll be able to stop this.” Biden continued, “This is the most pernicious thing. This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.” 

Biden said, “What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It’s sick. It’s sick. Deciding in some states you cannot bring water to people standing in line waiting to vote, deciding that you’re going to end voting at 5 oclock when working ppl are just getting off work.”

Ken Thomas from the Wall Street Journal said there is a May 1 deadline of having U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Thomas asked Biden if he could commit to having no U.S. forces in Afghanistan by May 2.

Biden said, “It will be hard to meet the May 1 deadline as of tactical reasons to get these troops out.” 

When asked for a specific timeline that could be expected Biden said, “It is not my intention to stay there for a long time but the question is how and what circumstances meet that agreement made by President Trump to leave under a deal that looks like it won’t be worked out to begin with.” 

Thomas asked if Biden believes there will be U.S. troops in Afghanistan next year. 

“I can’t picture that being the case.” Biden continued, “We will leave, the question is when we leave.” 

No firm date or confirmation was made on when U.S. troops are expected to leave Afghanistan. 

The panel of journalists asked Biden if he would commit to allowing journalists into immigration centers that hold children moving forward. 

Biden said, “I will commit to transparency as soon as I am in a position to implement what we are doing right now.”

He did not have a specific time or date for when journalists can expect complete access to immigration centers. Biden did offer an explanation for why he has not visited immigration centers. 

“One of the reasons I haven’t gone down, I don’t want to become the issue, bringing all the secret service and everybody to get in the way,” he said. 

Biden said that the Trump administration had “dismantled” the parts of immigration centers meant to handle overcrowding such as limiting the number of beds available. 

“So what we are doing now is attempting to rebuild a system that can accommodate what is happening today,” said Biden. 

On the topic of North Korea’s recent missile tests, Biden said that he is in talks with “allies in NATO” and that he is “also prepared for some form of diplomacy but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization.” 

Biden was asked if he had any plans on seeking re-election to which he said, “I plan to run for re-election that’s my expectation.”

When asked for more details, Biden said, “I’m a great respecter of fate I’ve never been able to plan four and half or three and half years ahead.”