(February 02, 2021, Washington, D.C.) – The following statement was issued by Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), in response to yet another flurry of executive actions, triggering a review of how to increase legal and illegal immigration in the middle of a crisis with no end in sight.
Increasing Welfare State Through Potential Elimination of Public Charge:
“Protecting the interests of the American people by barring the admission of immigrants who are likely to become public charges — those who are likely to become dependent on government welfare — has been a cornerstone of U.S. immigration policy since 1882. As part of his ‘America Last’ immigration agenda, President Biden is gearing up to reverse existing policies that protect American taxpayers – and doing so at a time when a raging pandemic is forcing many Americans to rely on social safety nets that can barely keep up with the demands being placed on them,” charged Stein.
Family Reunification Task Force:
“Virtually all of the children who were separated from accompanying adults during the 2019 border surge have been reunited with their parents or legal guardians. The small number who remain separated are because the adults accompanying them were not their parents or guardians, or because their parents chose to leave them in the United States as unaccompanied minors rather than return to their home countries as a family unit. The situation of these children is tragic, but the fault lies with the adults who exploited or abandoned them, not with the policies of the United States,” Stein said
“The administration’s actions are an endorsement of the unbalanced and failed policy of mass family chain migration that dominates our legal immigration system and applies it to our policy of dealing with illegal immigration and human trafficking. Not only will people who immigrate here legally be entitled to reunite with family members they left behind, now illegal aliens will be able to do the same. We all support keeping families united, but there is nothing that says that reunification can only occur in this country,” said Stein.
Supposedly Addressing the Root Causes of Migration:
“Today’s declaration by the Biden administration that the answer to massive surges of people crossing our borders illegally is to ‘address root causes of migration from Central America,’ sets new standards for the high art of bureaucratic obfuscation and eloquently stated gibberish,” declared Stein. “Hubris would be an inadequate description of the assertion that this country, which cannot address many of its own problems, is going to take on the task of solving Central America’s, and perhaps the rest of the world’s problems.
“In essence, Mr. Biden is saying that he has no intention of ever securing America’s borders or preventing mass incursions of migrants, and that American taxpayers will continue to subsidize failing foreign economies and substandard living conditions through magnetic U.S. immigration policies.
“Additionally, while futilely attempting to address the root causes of migration in dozens of countries around the world, the Biden administration is ignoring, or exacerbating, the ‘pull factors’ over which it has full control. In the first weeks of his administration, President Biden has clearly signaled that sanctuary policies will be strengthened, access to public benefits will be increased, asylum fraud will be rewarded, and detentions and removals will all but cease.”
More Asylum Seekers During a Global Pandemic:
“This executive order displays the same level of tone deafness seen in the previous immigration-related actions taken last week. Simply put, putting Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) on the chopping block in the middle of a pandemic is not in the national interest. American families have been put into lockdown for nearly a year now, hoping for a return to normalcy. It’s also important to note that both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are discouraging traveling during the pandemic. Those seeking admission as asylum seekers into the U.S. should be asked to remain in place until this health crisis, soon to claim 500,000 American lives, passes.”
Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004 or mtragesser@fairus.org
