Biden immigration plan opposed by GOP, conservative groups
WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers and conservative groups opposed President-elect Joe Biden’s forthcoming immigration plan Tuesday as massive amnesty for people in the U.S. illegally, underscoring that the measure will face an uphill fight in a Congress that Democrats control just narrowly.
In a further complication, several pro-immigration groups said they would press Biden to go even further and take steps such as an immediate moratorium on deportations, detentions and new arrests. Their demands indicated the pressures Biden would face from his party’s liberal wing as four years of President Donald Trump’s restrictive and often harsh immigration policies come to an end.
“It simply wouldn’t have happened without us,” Lorella Praeli, co-president of the liberal group Community Change, said of Biden’s victory. “So we are now in a powerful position.”
Biden plans to introduce the legislation shortly after being inaugurated Wednesday, a move he hopes will spotlight his emphasis on an issue that’s defied major progress in Congress since 1986.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who will become Senate majority leader this week, said Trump’s impeachment trial, confirmation of Biden’s Cabinet nominees and more COVID-19 relief will be the chamber’s top initial priorities. He called an immigration overhaul “a very high priority” and said he was studying Biden’s proposal and “I look forward to working together with him” — a choice of words that might suggest changes could be needed for it to pass Congress.
Pompeo says China’s policies on Muslims amount to ‘genocide’
WASHINGTON — On his way out the door, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out anew at China on Tuesday by declaring that its policies on Muslims and ethnic minorities in the western Xinjiang region constitute “crimes against humanity” and a “genocide.” The rarely used designation is sure to provoke an angry response from Beijing.
Pompeo made the determination just 24 hours before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. There was no immediate response from the incoming Biden team, although he and members of his national security team have expressed support for such a designation in the past.
Pompeo’s determination does not come with any immediate repercussions although the legal implications mean the U.S. must take it into account in formulating policy toward China. The U.S. has spoken out and taken action, implementing a range of sanctions against senior Chinese Communist Party leaders and state-run enterprises that fund the architecture of repression across Xinjiang.
Many of those accused of having taken part in the repression are already under U.S. sanctions. The genocide designation means new measures will be easier to impose.
“After careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that since at least March 2017, the People’s Republic of China, under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party, has committed crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” Pompeo said in a statement.