False claim Biden announced US citizenship pathway in southern-border comments | Fact check

Andre Byik, USA TODAY
·3 min read
98

The claim: Biden announces US citizenship pathway in southern-border remarks at White House

A Feb. 23 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows President Joe Biden speaking at a lectern flanked by American flags.

"They get a bracelet, and they get put in the country and they get – come – say, 'Come back in seven years. 'Come back in seven years when we're able to hear your case,'" Biden says in the video.

On-screen text included in the post claims Biden was talking about a path to citizenship.

"During the seven-year period of potential eligibility, non-citizens are expected to work toward becoming U.S. citizens," the caption reads. "If they do not, eligibility will stop after seven years."

The post was liked more than 2,500 times in five days.

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Our rating: False

The video takes Biden's remarks out of context. He did not announce any formal citizenship policy involving a seven-year window. Biden was commenting on asylum cases that are taking that long to adjudicate.

Biden remarks focused on stalled bipartisan Senate border deal

The video in the post shows Biden speaking at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting at the White House on Feb. 23. His remarks at the meeting touched on Ukraine's war with Russia, infrastructure, climate change, health care and the southern border.

But while the president spoke about immigration reform and advocated for a bipartisan Senate border agreement that has stalled in Congress, he did not announce a seven-year eligibility window for migrants entering the country to work toward U.S. citizenship.

A review of Biden's full remarks and a White House transcript of his speech makes clear his comments in the Instagram clip were about the bipartisan border package and the delays it addressed. He said it would provide funding to hire 4,300 additional asylum officers "to get asylum decisions in months instead of years."

Fact check: Image shows migrants who crossed English Channel, not US-Mexico border

"Right now, you can come – they come through the border on asylum, they don't – not able to see an asylum officer," Biden said, according to the transcript. "They get a bracelet, and they get put in the country and they get – come – say, 'Come back in seven years. Come back in seven years when we’re able to hear your case.'"

A White House fact sheet released on Feb. 29, the same day Biden traveled to the border city of Brownsville, Texas, said immigration judges are facing a backlog of more than 2 million cases, with each asylum case generally taking five to seven years to adjudicate. The bipartisan border deal, the White House said, would provide funding for an additional 100 immigration judges.

The Instagram user who shared the video did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Video takes Biden immigration comments out of context | Fact check

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