It’s Tuesday aka May the Fourth Be With You.
For May the Fourth be With You President Biden will have received his daily brief. This afternoon he will deliver remarks on the COVID-19 response and the vaccination program.
At our last meeting on Monday, President Biden had tweeted 2 times and retweeted 0 times. He added 5 tweets and 1 retweet giving him a tweeting total of 7 tweets and 1 retweet.
1:18 p.m. D.C., time he shares a live feed to remarks he gave from Tidewater Community College located in Virginia.
The video is 15 minutes and 20 seconds. The video starts with President Biden already speaking. He speaks until the 12 minute and 35 second mark. Missing from the video? First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
Lucky for us, and President Biden the White House YouTube channel did not cut out the remarks by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
His full remarks can be found @ White House.gov. According to their time stamp he spoke from 1:09 p.m. D.C., time until 1:31 p.m. D.C., time. The video which includes Dr. Biden speaking is 29 minutes and 36 seconds long.
2:17 p.m. D.C., time he’s families belong together. And that this week, DHS is finally going to start to reunite families separated at the border.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, offered 6 tweets, that includes the one shared by President Biden.
The other 5 tweets:
The first families reuniting this week are mothers. They are sons. They are daughters. They are children who were 3 years old at the time of separation. They are teenagers who have had to live without their parent during their most formative years.
— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) May 3, 2021
They are mothers who fled extremely dangerous situations in their home countries, who remained in dangerous environments in Mexico, holding out hope to reunite with their children.
— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) May 3, 2021
We are pleased that the process of reunifications is beginning this week and that these four mothers will be hugging their children after so many years.
— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) May 3, 2021
This @DHSgov led effort to reunite families is expansive and marshals resources from across the federal government, including our interagency partners at @HHSGov, @StateDept and @TheJusticeDept.
— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) May 3, 2021
The Task Force has made critical progress in just a few months, and we will continue to work tirelessly to give families the opportunity to reunite and heal. https://t.co/zNugQ1aFWf
— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) May 3, 2021
The first tweeted link and his last go to the same statement that says this week the family reunification process will begin. NBC News reported on Monday that the administration will reunite four migrant families, which includes one child separated in late 2017. According to their article it was part of the pilot program leading up to the horrible policy being announced in 2018.
The Biden administration will reunite four migrant families separated during the Trump administration this week, while its reunification task force estimates that over 1,000 families remain separated, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday.
NBC News. 05/03/2021.
The four families include at least one child who was separated from his or her parent at age 3 and at least two women who were separated from their children in late 2017 — part of a pilot program for former President Donald Trump’s 2018 “zero tolerance” policy.
Carol Donohoe managing attorney for Al Otro Lado’s Family Reunification Project told NBC News; Despite what Secretary Mayorkas would have the public believe, DHS has done nothing to facilitate the return and reunification of these parents this week, other than to agree to allow them in. The only reason these mothers will be standing at the port of entry is because Al Otro Lado negotiated their travel visas with the Mexican government, paid for their airline tickets and arranged for reunification.
She went on to say; We represent over 30 other parents who, like these mothers, were ready for return on Day 1 of the Biden presidency. DHS would have you believe that this is an incredibly complex task, yet AOL, with our limited resources, has already reunified nearly 40 deported parents with their children. There is no reason, other than lack of political will, for DHS to make these families undergo even one more day of separation and torture.
4:00 p.m. D.C., time he says the American Jobs Plan is a “blue-collar blueprint to build America.”
6:06 p.m. D.C., time he shares a photo of his visit to an elementary school prior to his remarks from Tidewater Community College.
How I wish high school was…
or like this…
7:25 p.m. D.C., time he announces the already announced revised annual cap number on refugees.
His full statement regarding the increased cap.
Today, I am revising the United States’ annual refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for this fiscal year. This erases the historically low number set by the previous administration of 15,000, which did not reflect America’s values as a nation that welcomes and supports refugees. The new admissions cap will also reinforce efforts that are already underway to expand the United States’ capacity to admit refugees, so that we can reach the goal of 125,000 refugee admissions that I intend to set for the coming fiscal year.
It is important to take this action today to remove any lingering doubt in the minds of refugees around the world who have suffered so much, and who are anxiously waiting for their new lives to begin.
The United States Refugee Admissions Program embodies America’s commitment to protect the most vulnerable, and to stand as a beacon of liberty and refuge to the world. It’s a statement about who we are, and who we want to be. So we are going to rebuild what has been broken and push hard to complete the rigorous screening process for those refugees already in the pipeline for admission.
[He explains that we will not achieve the 62,500 admissions number this year].
The sad truth is that we will not achieve 62,500 admissions this year. We are working quickly to undo the damage of the last four years. It will take some time, but that work is already underway. We have reopened the program to new refugees. And by changing the regional allocations last month, we have already increased the number of refugees ready for departure to the United States.
The budget that I have submitted to Congress also reflects my commitment to the goal of 125,000 refugee admissions in the first fiscal year of my presidency. That goal will still be hard to hit. We might not make it the first year. But we are going to use every tool available to help these fully-vetted refugees fleeing horrific conditions in their home countries. This will reassert American leadership and American values when it comes to refugee admissions.
White House.gov. 05/03/2021.
For Tuesday May the Fourth Be With You, President Biden has tweeted two times and retweeted 0 times so far.
8:39 a.m. D.C., time he shared a 1 minute 48 second video.
The video features The Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo explaining why we need the American Jobs Plan.
Q: What is the American Jobs Plan?
Commerce Secretary Raimondo says: The American Jobs Plan is President Biden’s plan, which he’s presented to Congress, about how we can make historic investments in America and put millions of Americans back to work in high paying jobs.
Q: What kinds of jobs will the plan create?
Commerce Secretary Raimondo says: The plan will create jobs in clean energy, renewables, technology, health care, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and get back into the business of making things in America.
Q: How are we bringing jobs back to our country?
Commerce Secretary Raimondo says: So, I grew up in a family of manufacturers. My dad had a job at a jewelry manufacturing company for 28 years. Unfortunately, his job and a lot of jobs went overseas. And now we have an opportunity to invest again in American manufacturing–investing in research and development, investing in new technology, investing in job training so that we can put Americans to work in manufacturing jobs right here in America.
Q: How will we pay for this plan?
Commerce Secretary Raimondo says: Don’t let anyone tell you we can’t afford this. The truth is, we can’t afford not to do it. The President proposes we pay for the American Jobs Plan by making reasonable tax increases on the largest corporations in America. The President has vowed we will not raise taxes, one penny, on hard-working Americans making less than $400,000 a year. If you want to learn more about the American Jobs Plan, visit whitehouse.gov./AmericanJobsPlan.
11:30 a.m. D.C., time he shares a 15 second video from remarks he made to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Amtrak.
President Biden: Amtrak doesn’t just carry us from one place to another, it opens up enormous possibilities. And especially now it makes it possible to build an economy of the future and one that we need.
The daily press brief was scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. D.C., time, it hasn’t started yet. Note that it might started before I’m published.
President Biden is scheduled to speak regarding the coronavirus pandemic at 2:30 p.m. D.C., time.
This is an Open Thread.
