Immigration Hub’s Kerri Talbot Responds to President Biden’s Announcement

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, in an historic announcement, President Joe Biden stepped down as Democratic presidential nominee and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Immigration Hub’s Executive Director, Kerri Talbot, issued the following statement:

“We are grateful for President Biden’s commitment to rebuilding our nation’s immigration system. Since Day One, the president and Vice President Harris have delivered on the promise to secure our border and keep families together, having revoked hundreds of Trump-era policies that separated families and jeopardized the lives of Dreamers and long-settled immigrants in our country. This summer, the Biden-Harris administration took action to expand legal pathways to Dreamers and undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens. We applaud President Biden’s life work, including his efforts to restore our immigration system by centering families and security.

“Today, we also commend and enthusiastically support the President’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. As Attorney General, Senator and Vice President, Harris has been instrumental in advancing policies to protect Dreamers and immigrant families, investing in solutions to address the root causes of migration, and holding accountable Trump and Republicans for their devastating policies that wrecked families and our immigration system. She is a strong defender and champion of American families, including their immigrant family members. We have no doubt that she can step up to the challenge, counter Trump and J.D. Vance’s rhetoric and dark vision for democracy, and protect the progress we’ve made while delivering transformative change for our immigration system. We know what’s at stake – from mass deportation to family separation – and we know that Vice President Harris can win for all families in America.”

READ: Vice President Kamala Harris’s Pivotal Actions and Record on Immigration

Since her tenure as a Senator and Attorney General of California, and now as the Vice President, VP Kamala Harris has been one of the nation’s foremost leaders on immigration reform, efforts to combat transnational crime, and strengthen border security. In stark contrast to Republican Vice President nominee J.D. Vance who has echoed Trump’s nativist record, endorsing Project 2025, mass deportation and detention of Dreamers and long-settled immigrants, and blocked bipartisan efforts to fix our immigration system in his short time in the Senate, VP Harris has been a steadfast supporter of immigration reform since her time in the Senate, championing citizenship for dreamers and the longtime undocumented, efforts to keep families together, and smart border security measures. She can be counted on to do even more to strengthen our security and deliver for immigrant communities in her second term.

The Biden-Harris administration has dramatically improved regional cooperation on migration management, worked to address the root causes of hemispheric migration, and created lawful pathways to citizenship. While Vice President Harris took on the responsibility and challenge of addressing the root causes of global migration, Republicans attempted to falsely brand her the “border czar” when that was not and is not her role. The border is the responsibility of DHS and DHS has sharply reduced migration through the southern border in recent months. When elected, President Biden asked the Vice President to focus on Latin American migration and to begin to rebuild what most experts consider to be an essential if relatively new component of rising to the challenge of managing and mitigating the worldwide surge in international migration.

As Vice President and leader of the Root Causes Strategy, VP Harris focuses on improving security, economic conditions, human rights, and governance in the Western Hemisphere, to ensure that people can remain in their countries of origin rather than migrating to the U.S. The VP has taken the following critical steps:

• Mobilized more than $5.2 billion in private sector investments in the region from more than 47 companies, including giants like Microsoft, Mastercard, and Nespresso. These investments helped to create over 250,000 jobs in the region, provided funding for small businesses, and supported the economic inclusion of women.

• Provided significant economic and humanitarian assistance to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, to address immediate humanitarian needs of people in the region. In April 2021, Harris announced $310 million in U.S. Government support to address acute factors contributing to migration in the region.

• Successfully appealed to the United Nations to launch the 2021 – 2022 Humanitarian Response Plans for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – through which the United States has provided almost $169 million towards humanitarian efforts in the Northern Triangle region.

• Launched “In Her Hands,” an initiative focused on women’s economic empowerment, in collaboration with the Partnership for Central America. By 2030, the initiative aims to provide 5 million women in Guatemala with job support, financial literacy, and technical training.

VP Harris has led the fight to keep the DACA program 

• VP Harris fought Trump’s move to end DACA. In 2017, Trump announced the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that helps Dreamers who are Americans in all but their paperwork to live and work in the U.S. As a member of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, VP Harris helped to lead oversight efforts over Trump’s decision to terminate this successful program. VP Harris conducted extensive questioning and investigation through hearings with DHS Secretary John Kelly and DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

• During her tenure in the Senate, VP Harris established herself as a champion of relief and protections for Dreamers and the longtime undocumented.  She urged Congress to act to create clear pathways to citizenship for dreamers, TPS holders, and farmworkers, while uplifting and highlighting the contributions of immigrants in the care sector. As a Senator, VP Harris supported executive actions to help Dreamers remain in the U.S. She co-led a letter calling on DHS to immediately comply with the Supreme Court’s decision rejecting the Trump Administration’s rescission of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and requiring the Administration to reopen DACA for new applicants.

• The Biden-Harris administration has worked to strengthen the DACA program. The administration issued a regulation to fortify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). The administration and the State Department just released a new policy that will streamline Dreamers’ access to visas and the administration is working on a new parole in place policy to allow U.S. citizen spouses to remain together. The administration also reversed an earlier rule to allow Dreamers to access healthcare through the ACA.

VP Harris has led efforts to combat Transnational Criminal Organizations

• As Attorney General of California, VP Harris led efforts to design a plan to combat Transnational Criminal Organizations.

• Upon taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration issued an Executive Order that created a new U.S. Council on Transnational Organized Crime to develop whole-of-government plans to combat transnational organized crime. In 2023, VP Harris convened Attorneys General from 7 states and D.C. on efforts to disrupt the illicit fentanyl supply chain.

• Created Joint Task Force Alpha, an anti-smuggling and anti-human trafficking task force intended to address irregular migration throughout Mexico and the Northern Triangle region. Joint Task Force Alpha is implemented in cooperation with local law enforcement in the countries where it operates.

• During her tenure in the Senate, co-sponsored rare bipartisan legislation with Senator Cornyn (R-TX) that improved the identification of missing persons and unidentified remains in the border region, including with respect to migrants.

VP Harris and the Biden Administration created lawful, fair, and humane migration pathways in cooperation with our regional partners.

• VP Harris and the administration created safe and orderly lawful pathways processes that have resulted in a significant reduction in the number of these individuals encountered at our southern border.

• Worked with the Guatemalan, Honduran, and El Salvadoran governments to improve access to H-2B visas, allowing seasonal workers to lawfully migrate to the United States. These partnerships regularize labor migration and help the U.S. address its labor shortage, while expanding access to seasonal work opportunities to people from the Northern Triangle.

VP Harris helped to lead efforts in the Senate to investigate Trump’s harmful family separation policy

• As a Senator serving on the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committees, VP Harris led efforts to conduct oversight of Trump’s separation of families at the border. In 2018, she grilled DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on the separations. She also co-sponsored legislation to end the horrible practice.

READ FULL MEMO HERE

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The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.