President Joe Biden (D) announced that there would be an “Immediate 100-Day Pause on Removals” as part of the President’s new immigration agenda for the country. In response, Florida Senators Rick Scott (R) and Marco Rubio (R) have responded by warning that this move on deportation could have negative lasting implications on the United States.
Shortly after the announcment, Senator Rubio directed a letter to David Pekoske, the acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, requesting some clarification as to what the freeze entails.
“I am concerned that such directives will prevent the removal of illegal immigrants with existing removal orders, including those with serious criminal records and convicted of violent crimes such as rape, sexual assault, and other aggravated felonies,” the Florida lawmaker wrote. He further warned that “it is deeply troubling that one of the first actions taken by the Biden Administration could undermine the safety and security of all Americans, including immigrants here lawfully.”
The language in the Biden deportation moratorium could be interpreted to allow someone here unlawfully & convicted of a serious felony but released from jail before Jan 19th to avoid removal
Today asked the acting DHS Secretary to explicitly clarify thishttps://t.co/p8LlEF9S1N
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) January 22, 2021
Senator Scott also weighed in on what the freeze means to him, taking to social media to call the freeze “a radical immigration agenda of amnesty & open borders” that “won’t work.”
He explained that Biden’s “order to pause deportations will create a humanitarian crisis at the border, threaten American safety and deplete” the resources of both the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and ICE.
In short, the former Governor of Florida asserted that proper reform begins with “securing the border.”
A radical immigration agenda of amnesty & open borders won’t work. @POTUS's order to pause deportations will create a humanitarian crisis at the border, threaten American safety & deplete @CBP & @ICEgov resources. Reforms must begin w/ securing the border. https://t.co/JVT3fnmwVM https://t.co/cB3Um2wAlX
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) January 24, 2021
After President Donald Trump’s (R) hard-line stance on illegal immigration, President Joe Biden affirmed that he would be relieving some of the restrictions that had been placed by his predecessor.
John Amaya, a former top ICE official during the Obama administration, has disregarded the warnings from Republican lawmakers, detailing that he is grateful that leaders “with sensibilities, reasonableness, with a rational approach to governing, are back in the driver’s seat.”
