Trump undone ... Muslim ban nixed
WASHINGTON, Jan 21, (Agencies): US President Joe Biden signed Wednesday several executive orders reversing his predecessor Donald Trump’s policies on a number of issues including climate change, coronavirus and immigration.
In his first hour in the White House, Biden hammered out three executive orders: one ordering a facemask mandate in all federal buildings, another cancelling travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries and the third ordering US rejoining Paris Climate accord.
“This is going to be the first of many engagements we’re going to have in here,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office.
“I thought with the state of the nation today there’s no time to waste. Get to work immediately.”
He added that he is going to be signing a number of executive orders over the next several days to week.
“Some of the executive actions that I’m going to be signing today are going to help change the course of the Covid crisis and combat climate change in ways we haven’t done so far,” he said.
“I think some of the things we’re going to be doing are going to be bold and vital and there’s no time to start like today.”
Earlier, Biden took the oath of office as the 46th leader of the United States and Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first female US Vice-President.
His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah on Wednesday sent a cable of congratulations to Kamala Harris on her inauguration as US VicePresident.
In the cable, His Highness the Amir wished her great success and everlasting good health.
His Highness the Amir extolled the distinguished deeprooted relations between Kuwait and the United States.
He added that he looks forward to strengthening friendship bonds and taking cooperation level in all domains to a new high to serve the common interests.
His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Meshaal AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah sent similar cables to the US Vice-President.
Deal
Six of Biden’s 17 orders, memorandums and proclamations deal with immigration. He ordered efforts to preserve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program known as DACA that has shielded hundreds of thousands of people who came to the U.S. as children from deportation since it was introduced in 2012. He also extended temporary legal status to Liberians who fled civil war and the Ebola outbreak to June 2022.
The Homeland Security Department announced a 100day moratorium on deportations “for certain noncitizens,” starting Friday, after Biden revoked one of Trump’s earliest executive orders making anyone in the country illegally a priority for deportations.
That’s not it. Biden’s most ambitious proposal, unveiled Wednesday, is an immigration bill that would give legal status and a path to citizenship to anyone in the United States before Jan. 1 - an estimated 11 million people - and reduce the time that family members must wait outside the United States for green cards.
Taken together, Biden’s moves represent a sharp U-turn after four years of relentless strikes against immigration, captured most vividly by the separation of thousands of children from their parents under a “zero tolerance” policy on illegal border crossings. Former President Donald Trump’s administration also took hundreds of other steps to enhance enforcement, limit eligibility for asylum and cut legal immigration.
The new president dispelled any belief that his policies would resemble those of former President Barack Obama, who promised a sweeping bill his first year in office but waited five years while logging more than 2 million deportations.
Eager to avoid a rush on the border, Biden aides signaled that it will take time to unwind some of Trump’s border policies, which include making asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court. Homeland Security said that on Thursday it would stop sending asylum-seekers back to Mexico to wait for hearings but that people already returned should stay put for now.
It “will take months to be fully up and running in terms of being able to do the kind of asylum processing that we want to be able to do,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security advisor, told reporters.
Despite the deliberative pace in some areas, Biden’s moves left pro-immigration advocates overjoyed. Greisa Martinez Rosas, executive director of United We Dream, called the legislation “the most progressive legalization bill in history.”
“We made it,” she said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. “We made this day happen.”
It is even more striking because immigration got scarce mention during the campaign, and the issue has divided Republicans and Democrats, even within their own parties. Legislative efforts failed in 2007 and 2013.
Attitudes
More favorable attitudes toward immigration - especially among Democrats - may weigh in Biden’s favor. A Gallup survey last year found that 34% of those polled supported more immigration, up from 21% in 2016 and higher than any time since Gallup began asking the question in 1965.
Seven in 10 voters said they preferred offering immigrants in the U.S. illegally a chance to apply for legal status, compared with about 3 in 10 who thought they should be deported to the country they came from, according to AP VoteCast. The survey of more than 110,000 voters in November showed 9 in 10 Biden voters but just about half of Trump voters were in favor of a path to legal status.
Under the bill, most people would wait eight years for citizenship but those enrolled in DACA, those with temporary protective status for fleeing strife-torn countries and farmworkers would wait three years.
The bill also offers development aid to Central America, reduces the 1.2 million-case backlog in immigration courts and provides more visas for underrepresented countries and crime victims.
The proposal would let eligible family members wait in the United States for green cards by granting temporary status until their petitions are processed - a population that Kerri Talbot of advocacy group Immigration Hub estimates at 4 million.
Unmarried adult children of U.S. citizens who have been waiting outside the country for more than six years are just getting their numbers called this month. Waits are even longer for some nationalities. Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens from Mexico have been waiting outside the United States since August 1996.