2020 US presidential candidate Joe Biden has defended Central American migrants taking advantage of asylum loopholes in immigration laws.
The former Vice President compared them to his Irish ancestors who left Ireland for the United States during the Great Famine.
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Biden, who has Irish roots in Ballina, Co Mayo, and in Co Louth, was commenting on immigration during a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire earlier this week.
Joe Biden visiting Ireland. Image: RollingNews.ie
“One of the reasons we are the nation we are is because we’ve been able to cherry pick the best of every culture in the world,” Biden said, pointing to the American immigration system.
“That’s why we are who we are, think about it," he asked the crowd.
HAPPENING NOW: Former Vice Pres. Joe Biden campaigns in Nashua, New Hampshire. https://t.co/x3ZcDiNFQe
— ABC News (@ABC) May 14, 2019
“Whether it was my great-great-grandfather getting on a coffin ship up in the Irish Sea to come here in the middle of famine or somebody coming in Guadalajara today saying, ‘You know, I got a great idea family, let’s sell everything we have give it to a coyote take it across the border drop us in the desert, place that doesn’t want us, won’t that be fun?’
Biden suggested that Americans who were critical of migrants and illegal immigrants rushing the Southern border were hypocritical, describing them as the “best” of Central American countries.
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“Who are your ancestors who came?” he asked. “What happened? These are the people that are optimistic, tough, resilient, they are the people that came so we picked the best of every nation.”
Biden also demanded that Trump stop characterizing immigrants as dangerous.
Former US Vice President and front-running Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (R) speak to reporters during a campaign stop at a King Taco shop in Los Angeles, California on May 8, 2019. Image: Getty.
“The idea that we’re trying to scare the living devil out of the American public … it’s just simply wrong,” he said.
In Los Angeles last week, Biden last week referred to the border debate as “a crisis created by Trump" and defended migrants and illegal immigrants coming from Central America.
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The former US senator has also said that the government has an obligation to provide everyone in the country with healthcare - including the more than 20 million estimated undocumented immigrants who currently reside in the U.S.
“Look, I think that anyone who is in a situation where they are in need of health care, regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented, we have an obligation to see that they are cared for."
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