President Joe Biden said Tuesday that there has been “a lot of talk, with good reason” about the high number of executive orders he has signed and added that he wasn’t “making new law,” but “eliminating bad policy.”
Biden addressed the press in the Oval Office prior to signing three new executive orders geared towards rolling back immigration policies from former President Donald Trump’s administration.
“Today I’m going to sign a few executive orders to strengthen our immigration system, building on the executive actions I took on day one to protect dreamers and to end the Muslim ban and better manage our borders. And that’s what these three different executive orders are about,” Biden began.
Biden has signed a record number of executive orders since taking office on Jan. 20, after he pledged on the campaign trail to seek “consensus” and criticized his fellow Democrats for planning to rely too heavily on executive orders to accomplish their policy goals. He also stated that one would have to be a “dictator” to get certain things done through executive orders.
“I want to make it clear. There’s a lot of talk, with good reason, about the number of executive orders that I have signed. I’m not making new law. I’m eliminating bad policy,” Biden continued. “What I’m doing is taking on the issues that 99% of them, that the last President of the United States issued executive orders that I thought were very counterproductive to our security, counterproductive to who we are as a country, particularly in the area of immigration. This is about how America is safer, stronger, more prosperous when we have a fair, orderly, and humane legal immigration system.”
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Biden has received widespread criticism for the high number of executive actions he’s taken, notably from The New York Times Editorial Board.
With the addition of Tuesday’s three executive orders, Biden has signed a total of 28 executive orders, 10 Presidential memorandums, and 4 proclamations.
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