President Joe Biden says it’s his “expectation” that he’ll run for reelection in 2024.
Biden is 78 and already the oldest president to hold office. He would be 82 at the start of a second term. The president was asked at the first news conference of his presidency whether he thought he could face a rematch against Donald Trump.
Biden scoffed at the question. “Oh, I don’t even think about it,” he said. “I have no idea.”
The president went on to address Trump’s immigration policies. Biden said he makes “no apology” for undoing some of the hard-line Trump-era immigration policies.
The Biden administration announced on Feb. 2 that it would no longer uphold the Trump administration policy of automatically deporting unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. Two weeks later, the White House announced plans to admit 25,000 asylum-seekers to the United States who’d been forced to remain in Mexico.
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Since then, the number of young migrants crossing into the U.S. without adults has risen. Both Customs and Border Protection, and Health and Human Services officials have struggled to house the influx of children. Immigration officials say the number of adult migrants and families trying to enter the U.S. illegally also has surged.
Biden said his administration is working on solutions to manage the number of children coming to the border. Biden officials have largely blamed the problems on what they say were shoddy Trump policies.
Biden explained that his administration is working on getting beds and other facilities up and running so children held in Border Patrol custody can be transferred.
He also shared in his first news conference that most of the migrants who are coming to the U.S.-Mexico border are being sent back, except for children. He said his administration is working to ease delays so children can be released from government custody to sponsors.
Biden said when parents send their children alone across the border, it’s a “desperate act.” The president added that he wants to help change the conditions in Central American countries when the migrants are coming from, but he says there’s no easy answer.
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