Washington, Sept 27: Former President Donald Trump, who has made anti-immigration rhetoric a key part of his reelection campaign, has warned that he would kick out hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have entered the country under two key Biden administration programmes if he is reelected.Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Trump railed against two immigration programs created by the Biden administration to encourage migrants not to come directly to the southern border to seek asylum and make the region less chaotic.
Trump said he would make the more than 1 million people who have entered the US under the two programmes leave: “Get ready to leave because you’re going to be going out real fast.”
Trump has already promised a vast crackdown on immigration if he’s reelected, including a vow to carry out mass deportations of migrants. He made similar pledges during previous campaigns, but during his time as president, deportations never topped 350,000.
Under one Biden administration programme, migrants as far south as the Mexican border with Guatemala can use a smartphone app called CBP One to schedule a date to come to an official US border crossing to seek asylum. So far, 813,000 migrants have used that system since it was launched in January 2023.
Separately, the administration launched a programme last year that allows 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to come to the United States if they have a financial sponsor, pass background vetting and buy a plane ticket to fly into an American airport instead of going to the southern border. About 530,000 people have come to the US under that programme.