Former Vice President Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner, laid out immigration policies and proposals on Wednesday he will pursue if he wins the White House later this year that includes fewer deportations.
In an with Vice News, Biden said his policies would focus primarily on “family reunification” and winning approval for so-called “Dreamers” to remain legally inside the U.S.
He also said that only people who have committed felonies would be deported.
“My [immigration] policy is family unification … What I’m going to do is make sure we focus on family unification … protect dreamers … [and] provide a pathway [to citizenship] for 11 million people … [the border] cages close … We’re not going to deport anybody who in fact has not — in this country — committed a felony,” he said.
In the past, according border security experts and Homeland Security officials, lax deportation policies have led to an increase in illegal immigration and increased dangers to American citizens.
But did not address that in his interview, however.
He also did not address how to keep America workers’ wages from falling. Immigration experts have said more migrants lead to drive down labor costs and, thus, wages for U.S. workers as well.
When he was asked what limitations, if any, he would place on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which is responsible for internal immigration law enforcement, Biden promised to protect illegal alien parents who put their kids in U.S. schools.
“One of the things that is happening is, particularly for Latino and Hispanic kids, is the incredible pressure on them in terms of their sense of security,” Biden said.
“They go off to school wondering whether their mom comes and picks them up if she’s not going to be there because an ICE agent was there to arrest her,” he continued. “Or she takes them to the doctor, that she’s going to be not there because she is quote undocumented and an ICE agent is going to pick him up.
“You change the [ICE agency’s] culture by saying ‘You are going to get fired. You are fired if, in fact, you do that. You only arrest for the purpose of dealing with a felony that’s committed,'” Biden said.