On Wednesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy, Blas Nuñez-Neto responded to a question on why the Biden administration won’t reinstitute former President Donald Trump’s policies to close the border by stating that “we are not a dictatorship in this country.” And “executive actions have not been enough for any of the previous presidents.”
Host Mike Viqueira asked, “Well, the speaker of the House says that the President can act without congressional action, that he can simply sign executive orders to effectively close the border, reinstitute the policies of the previous administration like Remain in Mexico, and effectively reinstitute what was known as Title 42. Is that a good idea?”
Nuñez-Neto responded, “Well, look, we are not a dictatorship in this country. There are limits to what any president can do with their own executive authorities. We have already taken a series of steps using our executive authorities, as have the previous two presidents of both political parties. But those executive actions have not been enough for any of the previous presidents. And they have invited the courts to step in and often rule from different directions on the same issue in ways that are just not helpful. And so, at the end of the day, we are committed to using our executive authorities and we already have, we’ve put…conditions on asylum eligibility at the border. We’ve removed more than 460,000 people since May 12, which is a record. That said, we appreciate and recognize that there is no lasting solution that does not involve the U.S. Congress stepping in.”
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