Former Vice President Joe Biden was confronted over Obama era immigration practices at a town hall in Greenwood, South Carolina on Friday. Immigration activists protesting the event aimed to hold Biden accountable for Obama’s deportation record.
Carlos Rojas, a protester with the Cosecha Movement, a group aimed at ending the deportation of illegal immigrants, had a particularly notable interaction with the former VP.
“Why should Latinos trust you?” Rojas asked.
Biden responded that he was proud to have served with Obama but that he would do more to help asylum seekers.
“This is a president who came along with the DACA program, no one had done that. Sent legislation to the desk, a pathway for the 11 million undocumented in America. This is a president that’s done a great deal,” Biden said. “I would, in fact, make sure that there is, we immediately surge to the border, all those people who are seeking asylum. They deserve to be heard.”
Rojas pressed Biden by asking if he made a mistake with the deportations that happened during Obama’s tenure.
“[Obama] did the best thing that was able to be done,” Biden said.
The protester continued pressing Biden on Obama’s deportations and asked if Biden would commit to ending all deportations if elected president.
Biden rejected Rojas, saying those who come here illegally and commit crimes may be deported, and then dismissed the protestor by saying, “you should vote for Trump.”
“You should vote for Trump,” Joe Biden tells @CosechaMovement protester Carlos Rojas at tonight’s town hall in Greenwood, S.C.
Rojas and other protesters from the group were criticizing Obama-era deportations and asked Biden to say he’d end all deportations — which he rejected. pic.twitter.com/od188WIlrQ
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) November 22, 2019
Biden’s stance on continuing deportations is on-par with what the rest of the country believes. A Gallup poll found 78 percent of U.S. voters find immigration to be an extremely important issue. Voters put immigration as their third most important issue, following closely behind health care and the economy.
While activists call for an end to all deportations, such a progressive policy is not attuned with what Americans want. They want to see substantial and reasonable changes to the immigration system, not an influx in illegal immigrants.
While Biden should be held accountable for his previous work in the White House, Obama’s immigration policy, and now Trump’s immigration policy, is exactly what American voters are looking for. Biden should not be ashamed of Obama’s record, instead he should remind voters that he wants to keep Americans safe and immigration fair. That message resonates with far more voters, compared to the open-border immigration policies of far-left progressives.
