Pro-Trump Super PAC edits Biden’s previous comment on deportations

While speaking about illegal immigration at a 2020 town hall, Joe Biden, then a Democratic presidential candidate, said that if elected, “no one will be deported in my first 100 days.”

But a TV ad from a super PAC supporting former President Donald Trump includes a clip of Biden saying only “no one will be deported,” falsely suggesting that Biden promised his administration would never deport anyone who was in the U.S. illegally .

According to AdImpact, a political ad tracking service, the 30-second ad from MAGA Inc. aired May 1 in Pennsylvania.

The super PAC’s ad begins with “CBS Mornings” host Tony Dokoupil saying Biden encouraged asylum seekers to come to the U.S. — which Biden did as a candidate. But the ad ends with Biden saying there would be no deportations if he were president — which he didn’t say.

The super PAC has produced at least one other ad — which appeared on digital platforms in late March — with the same deceptively shortened Biden quote about deportations.

Here’s a fuller transcript of Biden’s remarks during that CNN town hall in February 2020, as he answered an audience member’s question about raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Biden, February 20, 2020: We have the right to protect the border. But the idea – and by the way, no one – and some of you are going to get mad at me for this – but no one will be deported in my first 100 days until we get to the point where we discover the only reason for deportation will be whether you whether or not you committed a crime while in the country.

A month later, Biden clarified his awkwardly worded statement that the “sole reason for deportation” was “whether or not you committed a crime while in the country.” During a debate for Democratic presidential candidates in March 2020, Biden said: “Second, in the first 100 days of my administration, no one, absolutely no one, will be deported. From then on, the only deportations that will occur will be for crimes committed in the United States of America.”

In both cases, Biden said the proposed moratorium on all deportations only applied to his first 100 days in office — not his entire presidency, as the edited clip in the ads would have viewers believe.

Moreover, when Biden took office in January 2021, the policy his Department of Homeland Security wanted to implement in his first 100 days was that DHS would still deport some people no matter what.

A memorandum issued on January 20, 2021, then acting DHS Secretary David Pekoske, said the 100-day pause on deportations of individuals with final removal orders would not apply to anyone who has “committed or is suspected of terrorism or espionage, or otherwise endangers U.S. national security. The pause also excluded anyone who was not already in the U.S. as of November 1, 2020, those who voluntarily waived their right to remain in the country, and anyone who ICE’s acting director determined was required to do so under federal law are removed.

In addition, the document said that “nothing in this memorandum prohibits the arrest or detention of persons unlawfully present in the United States who are not identified herein as priorities.”

In any case, the policy was short-lived. It was ultimately challenged in court almost immediately and was blocked for the first time for 14 days by a federal judge in Texas on January 26, 2021. The same judge blocked the policy indefinitely on February 24.

Ultimately, the Biden administration would deport hundreds of thousands of people — and more than just those with felony convictions in the US.

In fiscal year 2021, which included more than three months of Trump’s presidency, DHS recorded 85,783 “removals,” which the department defines as “the mandatory and confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable noncitizen from the United States.” States on the basis of an order of removal.” That figure rose to 108,733 in fiscal year 2022, Biden’s first full budget cycle, according to the most recent “Yearbook of Immigration Statistics” published by DHS.

According to ICE’s annual report released in December, there were at least 142,580 additional relocations in fiscal year 2023.

And these figures do not include all “returns” of inadmissible or deportable people who agreed to voluntarily leave the US before being officially ordered to do so. Also not included are people who were quickly deported under Title 42, a federal public health order invoked starting in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In total, there were more than 2.8 million relocations, returns and deportations in fiscal years 2021 and 2022, according to the most recent annual data published by DHS.

But the MAGA Inc. ad. ignores these facts, turning Biden’s proposal for a 100-day pause on deportations into an open-ended policy.

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