Without naming presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, Vice President Joe Biden insisted Wednesday that U.S. interests are damaged when politicians make blanket assessments about immigrants.
“I understand what it means to compete in a heated election contest,” he said during remarks in Tampa, Florida. “But by insulting our partners throughout the hemisphere, by tarring all immigrants with a xenophobic brush, some leaders are actively undermining our security and our prosperity.”
Trump has vowed to deport all undocumented immigrants in the United States and construct a wall along the border with Mexico. In his remarks, Biden suggested that such policies would reverse major strides in U.S. ties with its neighbors, which he said were at their highest point in history.
Biden, who was delivering wide-ranging remarks about American policy in the Western hemisphere in Florida, said many leaders of neighboring nations feel an “intense personal resentment to the way we talk about Latinos or Hispanics here in the United States.”
Biden said it was hard to convince them that the U.S. respects them in the face of intense anti-immigration political rhetoric.
“They can’t believe, if we talk that way, we actually respect them,” Biden said.
Earlier in the day, Biden’s White House colleague Susan Rice, the national security adviser, issued similar criticism of Republicans.
“There are voices out there that disparage our diversity — that question whether America should welcome people of all races, religions, and creeds,” Rice said during commencement remarks at Florida International University. “Those voices can be loud. They can be intimidating. They can make us feel like we don’t belong. But, you know what? Let fear be their problem, not yours. Shake it off. Ignore the haters. And don’t you dare let them slow you down.”