President Joe Biden on Saturday compared Poland’s acceptance of more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees to the situation of migrants on the US southern border.
The odd comparison came when Biden thanked Polish President Andrzej Duda for his country’s response to the humanitarian crisis and the promise of US financial aid.
“We recognize that Poland has taken on a lot of responsibility,” Biden said.
“The fact that you have so many Ukrainians seeking asylum in this country, Poland. We understand this because we have thousands of people a day on our southern border, literally, not figuratively, trying to get into the United States,” he said.
Refugees wait for transport after fleeing the war from neighboring Ukraine at a border crossing in Medyka, southeastern Poland; Poland took in almost 2 million refugees
Ukrainian refugees board a train bound for Krakow at the Przemysl Glowny train station after fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian refugees rest at the ticket office at Przemysl Glowny train station after fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
President Joe Biden compared Poland’s admission of more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees to the situation with migrants on the southern border of the United States.
Some 3.5 million people have left Ukraine, and nearly 2 million are in Poland, which shares a nearly 300-mile border with its neighbour.
Humanitarian organizations, non-governmental organizations and governments around the world have sent food, money and medical equipment to help in what the United Nations calls the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.
By contrast, officials at the United States border are dealing with a flood of immigrants, many of them from Latin American countries, who are looking for a better life.
But most transitions are illegal, and more and more of them are coming.
Authorities are preparing to detain more than 200,000 people along the Mexican border in March, the highest monthly figure since August, according to preliminary US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained by The Washington Post.
The CBP has been overwhelmed by the number of migrants trying to find places to hold them while they wait for answers to their asylum applications.
And the United States government, since March 2020, has used an emergency public health order known as Section 42 to allow CBP agents to bypass standard immigration procedures and quickly deport most migrants to their home countries or Mexico.
A U.S. asylum-seeking family hands over their documents to the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the U.S. border from Mexico in Yuma, Arizona.
Border Patrol agents and members of the Texas Army National Guard light the way for asylum-seeking migrants from Central and South America making their way across the Rio Grande into the United States from Mexico.
The government has carried out over 1.7 million removals, saying Section 42 measures are necessary to prevent the spread of covid.
Immigration courts are currently overwhelmed with 1.7 million cases and asylum applications can take up to five years to process. Some 672,000 pending cases are asylum cases.
The situation on the US southern border has become a political issue, with Republicans condemning the large number of migrants crossing the border, and Democrats urging Biden to repeal the Section 42 rule, calling it an inhumane policy.
Duda, who appeared with Biden on Friday, by contrast, said Ukrainian refugees arriving in his country are “guests.”
“We don’t want to call them refugees. These are our guests, our brothers, our neighbors from Ukraine, who are in a very difficult situation today,” he said.
The US has been sending money and supplies, but will increase its contributions. Biden announced an additional $1 billion in aid and said the US would take in another 100,000 refugees.
Biden told Duda that the United States would do more to help Ukrainian refugees.
“We believe we should do our part for Ukraine as well by opening our borders to another 100,000 people,” he said.
The funding will provide food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other forms of assistance, according to the White House.