Joe Biden relativized Thursday the influx of migrants to the southern border of the United States, believing that it “happened every year” and was in no way related to his policy.
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“Every year, there is a significant increase in arrivals at the border in winter”, because migrants “are less likely to die of heat in the desert,” said the Democratic president during his first press conference .
Republicans accuse him of having encouraged thousands of migrants, including many unaccompanied minors, to enter the United States, by relaxing the migration policy of his predecessor Donald Trump.
Joe Biden retorted that the surge in flows had started before he entered the White House. “I will not apologize for abolishing policies that violated international law and human dignity,” he added.
Upon arriving at the White House, the Democrat suspended deportations of undocumented migrants for 100 days, introduced a bill to offer them a path to citizenship and began admitting some of the asylum seekers who have been patient since. months in camps in Mexico.
Accused of having attracted migrants with his image of “a nice guy”, he considered the idea “flattering”. But, for him, this is not the reason for these flows: “People are leaving Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador first of all because of earthquakes, floods, lack of food and the violence of people. gangs “
In February, more than 100,000 irregular migrants were arrested at the border, including nearly 10,000 unaccompanied minors, and these arrivals accelerated further in March.
US authorities were in charge of more than 15,000 unaccompanied young people as of Tuesday, including nearly 5,000 in premises at the border which, by their own admission, are not suitable for children.