President Joe Biden promoted his plan Tuesday to make it easier for migrants to come to the United States after meeting with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.
“This has been the greatest migration in human history around the world as well as in this hemisphere,” Biden said, speaking about the ongoing migration crisis after meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador during a summit in Mexico City.
But the president did not appear troubled by the volume of border crossings and migrants flooding into local communities in the United States, placing a burden on U.S. citizens and legal residents.
He spoke about his administration’s plan for new ways to allow migrants claiming asylum to sign up, get background checks, get a sponsor, and get them examined, allowing them to go directly to a port of entry to make their case.
“We’re trying to make it easier for people to get here, opening up the capacity to get here,” Biden said.
He said that the majority of migrants were fleeing the countries of Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua and that his administration would reach out to them directly to get them to sign up for admission to the United States.
He suggested his new plan would cut down the number of immigrants crossing at the Southern border using cartels and coyotes and getting victimized to make the “god-awful” trip to the United States.
“Look, right now the cartels make a lot of money, which they use for drug trafficking as well,” he said.
He complained that Republicans and even some Democrats were reluctant to work with him on immigration reform, despite a long tradition of immigration to the United States.
“All of you know, all of us in the United States are immigrants,” he said, speaking of his own Irish ancestors who came to the U.S. during the potato famine in Ireland.