'We Want To Protect... American Families': Karine Jean-Pierre Discusses Biden Executive Order

4 months ago

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about President Biden's executive order on citizenship.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you. I have a question about the Resolve Tibet Act and then another on marriage. Starting

00:05with the Resolve Tibet Act, China's warning that if the President signs it, there will

00:10be, quote, resolute measures, end quote, against the U.S. They're also protesting U.S. delegations

00:16like Nancy Pelosi who are going to India to meet with the Dalai Lama. So what is the White

00:20House's response to these threats from China? And does the President plan to sign this?

00:25I mean, look, the President's going to do what he thinks is best on behalf of the American

00:28people. That's what I can tell you. He's going to do what he thinks is best on behalf

00:33of the American people. I'm not going to get ahead of the President.

00:36Cool. All right. On marriage, it's hot, but sure. Cool. Sure. Cool. On marriage, so regarding

00:45this EO, in many states in the United States, such as my home state of Texas,

00:49Oh, marriage. Yeah. Okay.

00:50You have to present a stack of documents. For example, a driving license, a certified

00:55copy of birth certificate, passport, a military identification card, and Social Security cards

00:59in order to get a marriage license. Okay.

01:03I just wonder if this puts some of these applicants in this Kafka-esque situation where they haven't

01:09applied for this. They may have an informal marriage or a common-law marriage, and would

01:14that make them ineligible for this executive order? Do you accept things like, for example,

01:20the Declaration of Informal Marriage form from states?

01:23So I appreciate this is a process question. I appreciate the question. You're going to

01:26have to go to DHS to get specifics on that. I won't get into details of this, but that

01:34is something that the Department of the House-

01:36I'm concerned that asking for what amounts to paperwork, legal paperwork, for people

01:41who are undocumented and have a lack of paperwork in many critical ways might put them in a

01:48binding position.

01:49Look, I think the bottom line here is something to remember, that there are American families,

01:57there are people who have been here for 23 years who are married to American citizens

02:02and who have contributed into these communities, whether it's the economy or, as I said, in

02:08communities, and we want to protect American citizens, American families, and not separate

02:15them. And this is an opportunity to do that. And as far as what this is going to look like,

02:22what are the rules, what's the process, that is something DHS can obviously speak to more.

02:28But if you look at this in a more broad stroke, this is an important announcement. This is.

02:33As we're dealing with immigration policy that is broken, that is arcane, that has not been

02:39updated in some time, the President is doing everything that he can within his power to

02:45deal with this situation. And look, I'm going to be a broken record, but it is important,

02:52as I'm trying to make my point here, Congress needs to act to actually have a comprehensive

02:59answer here to deal with this system. You would not be asking me this specific question

03:05if Congress did not, would do their job, right, if they would actually take action

03:09and do their job. And so I think what's important is this is an, this is a, this announcement

03:15is going to matter, is going to matter to American citizens who are here and have a

03:22spouse who have been here for more than a decade, participated in the economy, participated

03:30in their community. And I think that's important.

'We Want To Protect... American Families': Karine Jean-Pierre Discusses Biden Executive Order

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