Shelby Talcott on June 27, 2019
Former Vice President Joe Biden said former President Barack Obama did a great job with immigration in response to a question about 3 million illegal immigrants being deported under his administration.
Biden said Obama “did a heckuva job” Thursday during his presidency on illegal immigration, adding that this was a contrast to President Donald Trump’s results regarding deportation.
A moderator then asked Biden if he thinks people without documents should be deported.
Biden said they should only be deported if “they committed a major crime.” If a person’s only fault is that he or she is in America without documents, they shouldn’t be the focus.
“President Obama, I think, did a heckuva job,” Biden said. “To compare him to what this guy’s doing [Trump] is absolutely … immoral. We should not be locking people up … Those who come seeking asylum, we should immediately have the capacity to absorb them, keep them safe until they can be heard.”
“That person [without documents] should not be the focus of deportation,” Biden continued.
Illegal immigration has been a hot topic throughout the Democratic debates. Many Democrats have said Trump is not doing the right things when dealing with illegal immigrants, and have come up with various plans on how to deal with immigrants if each were to become president.
Biden in particular has been vocal against Trump’s policies regarding undocumented immigrants, calling them “a wrecking ball to our hemispheric ties.”
