Biden Immigration Policy: ‘They Are All Going Back’

The United States discourages unauthorized U.S.-Mexico border crossing and plans to deport migrants, except for unsupervised children, as Border Patrol facilities are overcrowded with detainees according to President Biden’s immigration policy announced during the first press conference of his presidency on March 25. 

“They are all the going back,” Biden said. “The only people we’re not going to let sit in there on the other side of the Rio Grande by themselves are the children.” 

Most individuals and families will be sent back across the border, Biden said. Unattended children will be returned to a vetted-guardian and their country of origin if possible.  

Midway through an explanation, the president cut himself off. 

“I might give you too long an answer,” he told a reporter who asked about the selection process of which families could remain in the country. “Because if you don’t want the detail. No, no. I don’t know how much detail you want about immigration. Maybe I’ll stop there.” 

Biden has previously been on record saying now is not the right time for immigrants to come to America. 

In addition to immigration, Biden covered gun control and the Georgia and Colorado shootings, increasing his vaccine distribution goal to 2 million and running for re-election 2024 during his hour-long press conference. 

Negotiations about returning unauthorized crossers to the Mexican side of the border is ongoing because President Andrés Manuel López Obrador does not want to take the migrants and refugees, according to Biden. 

Biden committed to full transparency on the overcrowded migrant holding centers along the U.S.-Mexico border but did not give specifics to when journalists can tour the facilities. 

Press tours of the border holding centers are common practice. Past presidents such as Trump, Obama and both Bushes let the press tour the facilities. 

“We’re not talking about ripping babies out of mothers’ arms,” Biden said when asked about the children in the centers. “That doesn’t make it good, bad or indifferent, but the idea that we have tens of 1000s of kids in these god-awful facilities that are really little babies crying all night there is not true.” 

Nearly 70% of the children detained at the border are 16- or 17-year-old males, and the young children often featured in news coverage are in the minority of the facilities’ population, according to Biden. 

The poor living conditions in the detention centers are because the facilities’ holding capacity, specifically the number of beds, were significantly reduced by Trump-era immigration policies, Biden said.  

Biden immigration policy will expand the centers’ capacity while limiting their use.

“We’re rolling back the policies of separating children from their from their mothers, but I make no apologies for that,” Biden said when asked if he felt responsible for the Trump Administration’s actions. “I make no apologies for any programs that did not exist before Trump became president that have an incredibly negative impact on the law, international law, as well as on human dignity.” 

The Department of Defense provided 500 beds to be added to facilities along the Texas border as a first step to rebuilding the system in place during Pre-Trump administrations. The president has involved Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to provide Border Control additional resources to expedite the process. 

Biden plans to reduce waiting time in the centers to 72 hours. The identities of guardians will be thoroughly investigated within 48 hours before an unaccompanied minor is sent to them to ensure the child’s safety, Biden said. 

Press will be admitted once changes take effect. 

Unauthorized border crossings have increased since the beginning of Biden’s term. 

When asked if the increase was due Biden campaigning as a moral man, he laughed and said, “Well, look, I guess I should be flattered that people are coming because I’m a nice guy.”  

Biden attributes the uptick in crossings to the cool weather of the winter months making desert travel safer. The increase of immigrants is an annual occurrence that also occurred during Trump’s presidency, Biden said.  

“Nobody, by the way, suggests that there was a 31% increase under Trump because he was a nice guy,” he added later. “That’s not the reason they’re coming.” 

The Biden immigration policy requires the U.S. to invest over $700 million per year in the infrastructure of the Latin American countries the migrants are emigrating from. Vice President Harris is tasked with investigating the reasons people are leaving Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. 

Harris is drafting a funding proposal with the goal of getting bipartisan support. 

The money will not go to heads of states, instead going directly into community improvement projects with the goal of helping people stay in their homes. 

“That mother did not sit around with on the kitchen table and say, you know, I got a great idea how to make sure my son gets taken care of—send him on 1000-mile journey across the desert and up to the United States,” Biden said after a journalist brought up the 7-year-old boy who had crossed the border alone. “That’s a desperate act to have to take. Circumstances must be horrible.”