Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden said in an interview published this week that he shouldn’t be apologizing for President Barack Obama’s record on immigration issues.
“No. I think what we should be doing is acknowledging that comparing what President Obama did and what Trump did is night and day,” Mr. Biden said in an interview with Telemundo.
Mr. Biden, a top contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, said there is “nothing” to apologize for.
“What happens is, we went forward and did the single best the president was able to do at the moment,” he said. “And when there was no willingness to work to actually do something serious, they moved in a direction that took it beyond anything anyone else has ever done.”
More than 3 million people were deported during Mr. Obama’s eight years in office, earning him the nickname “deporter-in-chief” among some immigrant rights activists.
“That was what the law required at the time,” Mr. Biden said. “And the president decided when there was no willingness to do anything to improve the circumstance, which they had promised to do, then this is what happened. He changed the law.”
Mr. Biden said that Mr. Obama decided in 2012 that Republicans weren’t “playing the game,” and so he moved to shield illegal immigrants who came to the country as children through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Contrary to Mr. Biden’s contention that he “changed the law,” Mr. Obama took executive action to shield so-called “Dreamers” from the threat of deportation after he had said he didn’t have the power to change laws unilaterally.
“I am president — I am not king,” Mr. Obama said in 2010.
In 2017, President Trump moved to end the program and the issue is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mr. Biden said if the Supreme Court issues an unfavorable ruling, “we’re going to get it passed.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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