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"We couldn't do two things at once": Biden defends not immediately raising refugee cap

18 April 2021
Dan Ackermann

President Biden on Saturday sought to explain why he didn't immediately lift the Trump administration's historically low refugee cap.

Driving the news: Several Democrats accused Biden Friday of not fulfilling his pledge to raise the limit after it was announced he'd keep the cap. The White House said later it would be raised by May 15. Biden told reporters Saturday, "We're going to increase the number."

  • "The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people," continued Biden, per a pool report of his comments after golfing in Wilmington, Delaware.
  • "We couldn't do two things at once, but now we are going to increase the number."

For the record: The executive order Biden signed Friday to speed up the processing of refugees in 2021 states, "The admission of up to 15,000 refugees remains justified by humanitarian concerns and is otherwise in the national interest."

  • It adds that if this cap is reached before the year's end a presidential determination "may be issued to increase admissions, as appropriate." 

Go deeper: On the front lines of the growing border crisis

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.