Senators mixed on Biden's new immigration citizenship plan

(18 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

++EDIT BEGINS AND ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
++SOUNDBITES SEPARATED BY BLACK FRAMES++
 
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington – 18 June 2024
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Elizabeth Warren, (D) Massachusetts:
“It is very important that we permit families to stay unified. When someone is married to a U.S. citizen, permitting those families to stay together so that little children don't have to wonder when they go off to school in the morning, whether or not mama or daddy will still be there when they get home late in the afternoon. The president once again is doing what Joe Biden does best. He is using his tools to try to advance the values of the American people, and that means treating our families as important and helping those families that have mixed legal status on immigration. I strongly support him on that.”
++BLACK FRAMES++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Bill Cassidy, (R) Louisiana:
“He’s obviously trying to walk a line between his progressive left that wants open borders and the electorate which is very fed up with it. I just saw some polling data from CBS News, I think anybody from CBS? Some CBS News regarding like 60% of Americans or 70% would want to forcibly deport people who recently came here. Now, that just shows you the American people are just kind of like they're sick of it. And frankly, they blame Biden. So, I think all these are both him trying to have his cake and eat it too, in the one sense saying he's going to shut the border down, but another sense reassuring his progressive left that that he's still going to be sensitive to letting people in. He's got a political problem, and he's got a political problem because it's going against the instincts of his advisers.”
++BLACK FRAMES++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Sen. Sherrod Brown, (D) Ohio:
“Well, the good idea is that Congress finally pass the bipartisan border bill, to secure the border and to pass an immigration bill. And presidents of both parties have failed. And I'm hopeful that we do that and make a real difference.”
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
President Joe Biden is taking an expansive election year step to offer relief to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status in the U.S.
 
It comes after the Democratic president's own aggressive crackdown at the southern border earlier this month that enraged advocates and many Democratic lawmakers.
 
The White House says the Biden administration will allow certain spouses of U.S. citizens without legal status to apply for permanent residency and eventually citizenship.
 
Senior administration officials say the move could affect upwards of half a million immigrants.
 
Senators on Capitol Hill responded Tuesday to Biden’s immigration step.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, (D) Massachusetts, says she supports the president on this issue.
 
“The president once again is doing what Joe Biden does best. He is using his tools to try to advance the values of the American people, and that means treating our families as important and helping those families that have mixed legal status on immigration,” Warren said.
 
Sen. Bill Cassidy, (R) Louisiana, says the president is steeped in a political problem.
 
“I think all these are both him trying to have his cake and eat it too, in the one sense saying he's going to shut the border down, but another sense reassuring his progressive left that that he's still going to be sensitive to letting people in. He's got a political problem, and he's got a political problem because it's going against the instincts of his advisers,” Cassidy said.
 
 
 



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