Critics have targeted President Biden for comparing immigrants seeking asylum to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany during the Holocaust.
“What a disgusting and appalling statement from an ignorant and corrupt media is silent,” conservative commentator Mark Levin said on Twitter Friday, reacting to Biden’s remarks.
Biden’s comments came Thursday in response to a reporter asking the president whether he believes migration is a human right.
Biden compared MIGRANTS seeking asylum to Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.
President Biden on immigration and border security.
(White House)
“If your family is being persecuted, I think it’s a human right,” Biden replied. “You know, I thought it was a human right for the Jews in Germany to go – to escape and get help where they could.”
But some have argued that many of those seeking asylum or crossing the border illegally are not innocent victims.
“Biden just compared illegal aliens who are considered terrorists, drug dealers and bad actors to Jews who fled Germany during the Holocaust. It’s not even the same situation,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. on Twitter on Thursday. “That kind of thinking prevents us from legally protecting our border.”
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
BIDEN HAS A WORD, DOESN’T KNOW THE 8TH BORDER ACT, MISLABELS CBP
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R.N.Y., echoed the sentiment, calling Biden’s comments “disgraceful and out of touch.”
“Border Enforcement has caught terrorists, cartels, drug smugglers and human traffickers at the border,” Tenney said on Twitter Thursday. “Biden’s lurid comparison between rising illegal immigration and Jews fleeing Nazi Germany is shameful and out of touch.”
The controversial comparison came as Biden traveled to the southern border on Sunday, his first such trip in his presidency, despite the height of tensions along the southern border. Ahead of the trip, Biden announced an expansion of a pandemic-era program that gives border agents the ability to turn back immigrants who have crossed the border illegally.
Border Patrol agent Vincent Pirro looks at the end of the border wall that separates the Mexican cities of Tijuana and San Diego in San Diego.
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
“That’s my message,” Biden said. “If you want to leave Cuba, Nicaragua, or Haiti, you have — and we — or have agreed to begin travel to America, don’t just show up at the border. Stay where you are and apply legally. From there .”