Biden revokes Trump ban on green card applicants
U.S. PRESIDENT Joe Biden on Wednesday revoked a proclamation from his predecessor that blocked many green card applicants from entering the United States.
Former President Donald Trump issued the ban last year, saying it was needed to protect U.S. workers amid high unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since taking office last month, Biden has revoked dozens of Trump orders and issued dozens more of his own as he’s sought to target foundational aspects of Trump’s legacy and promote aspects of his own agenda without going through Congress.
The latest slate of revocations targeted a grabbag of issues, including a few that Trump signed in his last months in office. The former president issued a memorandum in September that sought to identify municipal governments that permit “anarchy, violence and destruction in American cities,” as The Associated Press (AP) reported.
The memorandum followed riots during anti-police and anti-racism protests over George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police. The Justice Department identified New York City; Portland, Oregon and Seattle as three cities that could have federal funding slashed.
Those cities in turn filed a lawsuit to invalidate the designation and fight off the Trump administration’s efforts to withhold federal dollars.
In his “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,” Trump intoned that America’s forefathers “wanted public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue.” The memorandum added that architects should look to “America’s beloved landmark buildings” such as the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Department of the Treasury and the Lincoln Memorial for inspiration.
Another order halted was one Trump issued in the final days of his presidency dubbed the “Ensuring Democratic Accountability in Agency Rulemaking.” It called for limiting the ability of federal agency employees in making regulatory decisions.
Biden also revoked a 2018 order that called for agency heads across the government to review welfare programs – such as food stamps, Medicaid and housing aid – and strengthening work requirements for certain recipients.
Curtis Morrison, a California-based immigration attorney who represents people subject to the ban, said Biden will now have to tackle a growing backlog of applications that have been held up for months as the pandemic shut down most visa processing by the State Department. The process could potentially take years, he said, according to remarks carried by Reuters.
RESEARCHERS have found a new coronavirus variant in New York City that shares some similarities with a more transmissible and intractable variant discovered in South Africa.
The new variant, known as B.1.526, was first identified in samples collected in New York in November, and by mid-February represented about 12% of cases, researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, said on Wednesday.
The variant was also described in research published online this week by the California Institute of Technology. Neither study has been reviewed by outside experts.
The Columbia researchers said an analysis of publicly available databases did not show a high prevalence of COVID-19 variants recently identified in South Africa and Brazil in case samples from New York City and surrounding areas.
“Instead we found high numbers of this home-grown lineage,” Dr. AnneCatrin Uhlemann, assistant professor in the division of infectious diseases at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, said in a statement.
The Columbia study found that B.1.526 shares some worrying characteristics with B.1.351, the variant first identified in South Africa, and P.1., which was first identified in Brazil. Several studies have suggested that those new variants are more resistant to some existing vaccines than earlier versions of the coronavirus.
The researchers said the main concern is a change in one area of the virus’ spike protein, called E484K, that is present in all three variants. The E484K mutation is believed to weaken the body’s immune response to the virus.
Studies have shown that recently launched coronavirus vaccines are still likely to neutralize the virus and protect against severe illness, even for infections with new variants. Vaccine makers are also working to develop booster shots to combat mutated versions of the virus.