Year: 2024

Rose Garden 5:30 P.M. EDT THE SECOND GENTLEMAN:  I got to wait for that song to end.  (Laughter.) Good evening.  AUDIENCE:  Good evening. THE SECOND GENTLEMAN:  It is my honor to be standing here with President Biden and Vice President Harris.  (Applause.)  They have both stood strong with the Jewish community time and time again.  There is no one fighting harder to combat hate and to unite our country.  To all of our esteemed guests, it is so great to join you for a Jewish American Heritage Month celebration at the White House.  (Applause.) Tonight, we’ve come together to celebrate…

On May 7, 2024, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken announced $578 million in humanitarian, development, and economic assistance to support partner countries and help communities to respond to urgent humanitarian needs, expand lawful pathways, and support the regularization and integration of migrants during the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection Ministerial in Guatemala City. Of that, nearly $459 million in additional humanitarian assistance responds to the needs of refugees, vulnerable migrants, and other displaced persons across the Western Hemisphere, as well as support for the Safe Mobility Initiative (SMOs).  This life-saving assistance from the American people includes more than $376 million through the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) and nearly $83 million through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  This brings the total U.S. humanitarian assistance for the Western Hemisphere to more than $3.9 billion since fiscal year…

Statement from Secretary Mayorkas on Senate Vote on the Bipartisan Border Security Agreement Release Date: May 23, 2024 WASHINGTON – Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas issued the following statement on the Senate vote on the Bipartisan Border Security Agreement: “The bipartisan border security legislation would deliver the strongest border enforcement tools in thirty years. It would make significant changes to our broken immigration system, greatly accelerating the federal government’s ability to remove more quickly individuals who have illegally entered the United States and do not have a legal right to stay. It would also equip the federal government…

Via Teleconference 2:02 P.M. EDT MODERATOR:  Hey, everyone.  Thanks for joining us.  Kirby has a few words here at the top, and then we’ll get through as many questions as we can. MR. KIRBY:  Hey, everybody.  I know you’ve all seen the statement from the President on the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, as the President said, is outrageous.  And there should be — there is none — any equivalence between Israel and Hamas.  Hopefully, you’ve also already seen Secretary Blinken’s statement, to the same effect, about our utter rejection of any equivalence between…