President Biden compared asylum-seeking immigrants to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany, in off-the-cuff remarks after he delivered a speech on the status of the southern border.
When a reporter asked if he believes migration is a human right, the president Thursday was quick to compare the situation at the border to the Holocaust.
‘Well, I think it is a human right if your family is being persecuted,’ Biden responded. ‘I thought it was a human right for, you know, Jews in Germany to be able to go — to get to escape and get help where they could.’
Biden is set to visit the border Sunday for the first time during his presidency, which has seen the highest levels of southern border encounters in history. The president Thursday announced an expansion to a pandemic-era program that allows agents to turn away migrants from different countries who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexican border.
‘My message is this,’ Biden said. ‘If you’re trying to leave Cuba, Nicaragua or Haiti, you have a — and we — or have agreed to begin a journey to America, do not — do not just show up at the border. Stay where you are and apply legally from there.’
These applications begin a lengthy process of asylum seeking. Biden emphasized the need to expand funds for asylum processing.
‘If you think about it, there’s not a whole lot of countries people would rather live in than here, Biden said. ‘No, I mean it sincerely. I think about this, and I think this is — sometimes, the team looks at me like maybe I’m out of my mind here.’
Biden claimed increased funds for the border is a priority and that ‘no one knows this better than the vice president,’ who was assigned the task of finding the root cause of mass migration to the border, where she last visited in 2021.
The president noted Title 42, which allows border agents to turn away migrants, is set to expire pending a legal case. He later said border agents would be forced to enforce ‘Title 9,’ then corrected himself to say Title 8, which mandates that illegal immigrants present in the U.S. without admitting or parole must are inadmissible.