A point of stark contrast between then-candidate Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump was their policies towards immigration into the United States, with infamous chants like “Build the Wall” becoming characteristic of Trump and his supporters’ priorities. After four years of Trump’s efforts to restrict immigration, the incoming Biden administration has already taken concrete steps to both reverse some of those policies as well as to set a new tone on immigration altogether.
During his first days in office, President Biden has signed a slew of executive orders, some of which have focused on immigration policy. Notably, Biden’s nominee for Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, would be the first Latino and the first immigrant to lead the department, which will be responsible for implementing many of the administration’s changes in immigration policy.
One of President Biden’s first executive actions was to halt construction of the wall at the southern border. The border wall, which is estimated to have cost US taxpayers $15 billion dollars, is emblematic of the former president’s stance towards immigration. President Biden ended the national emergency declaration which had provided the previous administration with additional funds for the construction of the wall, and has paused construction altogether until further review.
Another one of President Trump’s earliest moves against immigration was the controversial Muslim ban, which restricted entry into the United States from predominately Muslim countries. President Biden has repealed the ban, and additionally included a provision in his immigration bill which would limit presidential authority to issue similar bans in the future. President Biden will also be instructing the State Department, under newly-confirmed Secretary Antony Blinken, to resume processing visa applications from the affected countries.
Two additional executive orders from the previous administration have been revoked by President Biden. The first is the former president’s order to exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted in the census. The second is the former president’s interior enforcement executive order, which made the arrest of all undocumented immigrants a priority for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under every other administration, ICE has been instructed to exercise prosecutorial discretion to focus its limited resources on high-priority targets which pose a threat to the United States’ security.
Biden has also ramped down the former president’s “remain in Mexico” program. The program required that migrants arrested at the southern border wait in Mexico while their immigration hearings took place in the United States. As they waited, migrants were detained in makeshift camps in Mexico, often forced to live in deplorable conditions.
Furthermore, President Biden has pledged to protect the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children from deportation. The program, though widely popular among both parties, had been under attack by the Trump administration since 2017. Biden has signed a presidential memorandum directing Homeland Security and the Attorney General to take actions to preserve the program and has proposed legislation that will include a pathway to citizenship for its beneficiaries.
Lastly, while the signing of executive orders has been helpful in advancing President Biden’s agenda and reversing some of the former administration’s most harmful policies, the White House has made it clear that reforming the immigration system will require a legislative solution. The Biden administration has sent a comprehensive immigration bill to Congress, through which it hopes to accomplish the bulk of its immigration reforms. The bill will provide an immediate path to citizenship to farmworkers who have been particularly essential during the coronavirus pandemic, to Dreamers under the DACA program, and to Temporary Protected Status holders. The bill also lays out a path for the country’s qualifying undocumented immigrants to eventually apply for legal status. Additionally, it strives to clear visa backlogs, improve immigration courts, and authorizes funding to address the root causes of migration at the Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as to establish safe and legal channels for refugees and migrants to seek protection. House Democrats, led by Representative Linda Sanchez, will lead the effort to pass the bill in the House of Representatives, while Senator Bob Menendez will lead the effort on the Senate side of Congress.
While a lot work remains to be done to overhaul the country’s immigration system, the Biden administration has hit the ground running in order to reset the tone on immigration and restore the dignity and respect towards all people in the United States, despite nationality or legal status.