Five Far-Left Promises Joe Biden Has Kept in His First 50 Days
President Joe Biden marked his 5oth day in office on March 10, thus keeping his promise of establishing a progressive body of government while repealing critical components of former President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Biden started his presidency by going around Congress to unilaterally change policies through executive orders. On the first day of his presidency, Biden signed a stack of orders rolling back many of Trump’s policy priorities.
1. Revoking the Keystone XL Pipeline
In May 2020, the Biden campaign released a statement saying he will “proudly stand in the Roosevelt Room again as President and stop it for good” when referring to the Keystone XL Pipeline.
A statement from his campaign says Joe Biden ‘strongly opposed the Keystone pipeline in the last administration, stood alongside President Obama and Secretary Kerry to reject it in 2015, and will proudly stand in the Roosevelt Room again as President and stop it for good.’ pic.twitter.com/8OakMVa3bF
— CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) May 18, 2020
On Biden’s first day of office, he revoked the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline. Criticism has grown from industry stakeholders, GOP lawmakers, and unions. The job loss, some estimates project, will leave up to 70,000 Americans out of work.
“It’s only day one, and with the stroke of a pen, Biden has already taken steps to kill American energy projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline which is critical to energy-producing states like Montana,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) said in a statement.
Trump had issued the presidential permit, which authorized work on the pipeline. The permit created thousands of U.S. jobs, directly and indirectly.
Mark McManus, general president of the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters, said the move to end the pipeline “is a slap in the face to the thousands of union workers who are already a part of this safe and sustainable project.”
2. Ending Migration Controls
In March 2020, Biden promised to end Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program, which helped effectively end the practice of border crossers being released into the U.S. interior while they await their asylum hearings.
“Donald Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy is dangerous, inhumane, and goes against everything we stand for as a nation of immigrants,” Biden wrote in a statement. “My administration will end it.”
Donald Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy is dangerous, inhumane, and goes against everything we stand for as a nation of immigrants. My administration will end it. https://t.co/toYzMaPP1Y
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 12, 2020
As one of his first executive orders, Biden ended Remain in Mexico and is now releasing roughly 25,600 of the migrants enrolled in the program into the U.S. interior.
3. Pledge to Get Back into the World Health Organization (W.H.O.)
In July 2020, Biden pledged to join the W.H.O. on his first day in office.
Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health. On my first day as President, I will rejoin the @WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage. https://t.co/8uazVIgPZB
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 7, 2020
As one of his first executive orders in January, Biden wrote to the United Nations to declare that the U.S. would not be leaving the W.H.O., despite concerns about China’s dominance and W.H.O.’s failure on the coronavirus.
4. Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord
In November 2020, Biden promised to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement on his first day in office.
Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it. https://t.co/L8UJimS6v2
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 5, 2020
On Biden’s first day in office, January 20th, he returned the U.S. to the Paris Agreement.
Today, President Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. pic.twitter.com/V4fVV2i2jZ
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 21, 2021
5. Halting Deportations for Most Illegal Aliens
Continuously throughout the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden promised to ensure that illegal aliens are not deported until they are convicted of felonies.
“[T]he only deportations that will take place is convictions of felonies in the United States of America,” Biden said in March 2020.
In Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency memos, Biden has prevented agents from arresting and deporting about nine-in-ten illegal aliens who would have otherwise been detained. Specifically, the enforcement guidelines stop agents from deporting an illegal alien unless they are a recently convicted aggravated felon.
Flailing Biden White House Struggles to Respond to Border Crisis
President Joe Biden’s administration continues struggling to respond to the border crisis, as the White House remains unprepared to answer the most basic questions about what is going on and how they plan to handle it.
Since Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas repeatedly insisted on March 1, the crisis was not a crisis but a “challenge,” the Biden administration has struggled to address it.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki dodged several questions from reporters about the border crisis, refusing even to confirm the latest reports of over 3,200 unaccompanied minors detained at the border.
“I’m not going to confirm numbers from here,” Psaki said, adding the Department of Homeland Security is “not our program.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki refused Tuesday to confirm reports that the number of detained unaccompanied minors at the border had tripled since Biden became president. https://t.co/oY5KaGrCYn
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 10, 2021
She was also unable to say whether the Biden administration under Heath and Human Services would open more facilities to process the unaccompanied minors in detention.
“I don’t have anything to confirm for you in terms of new facilities,” she replied. “We are looking at facilities. A lot of considerations underway.”
The earlier decision to open up a facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, was condemned by the left including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), but without more facilities, more minors are kept in detention families meant for adults.
To mollify critics on the left, Psaki reassured the minors would receive educational resources, health resources, mental health resources, and legal aid.
“Humanity will always be a value from the president on down,” Psaki said Tuesday.
The White House also has an approach to blame everything but their new policies for the sudden surge at the border.
The Biden administration shattered a record for unaccompanied migrant children being moved to shelters in February. https://t.co/nnCqJIY8qN
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 10, 2021
Psaki blamed prosecution, violence, economic hardship as well as two hurricanes last fall for the surge at the border and the coronavirus pandemic.
“All of this is taking place during a global pandemic that has impacted other countries’ economies, placing undue hardships on its people, just as it did in the United States,” she said.
No, Psaki repeated Tuesday, it is not a crisis, even though the number of unaccompanied children in detention is larger than under Trump when it was about 2,600.
“Look, I don’t think we need to sit here and put new labels on what we have already conveyed is challenging,” she said.
Besides, Psaki argues, the American people care about the “substantive policy” behind the Biden administration’s approach.
“That’s the information the American people are looking for, so that’s what we’re working to provide,” she said.
The White House sent a handful of officials on a secret trip to the border on Saturday, who reassured reporters afterward they participated in “operational briefings, updates, and tours of the facilities” and would be briefing the president about the “challenges” on the border.
Nope. pic.twitter.com/P1Ii7zOEyM
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 10, 2021
As Psaki remains unable to answer the basic questions about the crisis, the White House has planned a briefing with the Coordinator for the Southern Border Ambassador Roberta Jacobson
Jacobson, a former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico serves in Biden’s National Security Council after resigning in protest in 2018 during the Trump administration.
She expressed her frustration with Trump’s “chaotic” attempt to renegotiate NAFTA, accusing the president of “vilifying Mexicans” in a New York Times op-ed condemning the former president.
“Despite Mr. Trump’s campaign rhetoric vilifying Mexicans and focusing on a border wall, embassy officials and our Mexican partners felt after his inauguration that we would be able to continue working well together,” she wrote. “But it quickly became impossible to know how to influence the mess in Washington.”