White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday walked back President Joe Biden’s support for amnesty for illegal immigrants by using the Senate budget reconciliation process.
“His view is that right now, this should not be… that the conversation should not be about a reconciliation process,” Psaki said. “It should be about moving forward in a bipartisan manner.”
Psaki was asked about immigration reform during the White House press briefing on Wednesday afternoon.
Two Hispanic Democrat members of Congress told Politico that Biden supported the idea behind closed doors at a White House meeting on Tuesday and would include rhetoric about the idea in his address to Congress later this month.
If Congress found a way to use budget reconciliation to move on some form of amnesty, it would only require a simple Democrat majority to pass it.
But Psaki said Biden would rather focus on building bipartisan support for immigration reform and amnesty.
“I guess I can articulate what the president’s point of view is and certainly what his intention of conveying in a private meeting was, which is that he believes there should be bipartisan support,” Psaki said.
She added that the “conversation” on immigration reform “should not be focused on reconciliation.”
Psai pointed to Republican and Democrat support for amnesty for illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children, which was something Biden also supported.
“There is bipartisan support, for example, on the DREAMers and moving forward there,” she said. “And he believes that modernizing our immigration system and putting in measures in place to address that is something that should warrant a bipartisan support.”
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