On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) stated that “President Biden has done all he could” through executive action on immigration and “put forward a parole program, a family reunification program very early on, and we saw the numbers tamed down a little bit.”
Co-host Audie Cornish asked, “Should Democrats though, be concerned about the conversation around immigration? Is that gaining steam with voters? We found that President Biden is actually leading Democrats to embrace kind of tougher policies, right? Than he, originally, in a way, campaigned on. How are you thinking about this now?”
Espaillat answered, “Well, look, everyone agrees that immigration is broken. Everyone agrees that the border needs fixing. President Biden has done all he could. He put forward a parole program, a family reunification program very early on, and we saw the numbers tamed down a little bit. And now he agreed on a piece of legislation that includes some of the toughest border security measures promoted by the Republicans, who then went ahead and voted against it. And so, he’s done all he could.”
Co-host John Berman then asked, “Do you think there’s any executive action that President Biden can take prior to the State of the Union on immigration? There’s some reporting that it’s being considered?”
Espaillat responded, “I would like to see some balanced approach to immigration, maybe something on DREAMers and border security. I’m a part of the Dignity Act, which is bipartisan legislation…that has immigration reform components to it and border security, things that I may not agree with, but you can’t have it all in this discussion. You’ve got to reach consensus. The Dignity Act is a good step forward.”
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