Here are six things Joe Biden will likely do on immigration
When he enters the White House, Joe Biden will likely seek to reverse much of President Donald Trump’s immigration legacy and push ahead with his own agenda. While some measures could be quickly rescinded, the multitude of Trump administration changes could take months or years to undo. Here is what to expect from Biden in six key immigration policy areas:
1 IMMIGRATION REFORM AND ‘DREAMERS’
Biden plans to send an immigration bill to congress on his first day in office in January that includes a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally, a campaign official said. the bill would also address the status of so-called “Dreamers” living in the united states illegally after entering as children.
2 TRUMP’S TRAVEL BANS
on Day one of his presidency, Biden intends to rescind trump’s travel bans on travellers from 13 countries, most of them either majority-muslim or african nations. shortly after taking office in 2017, trump issued an executive order that banned travellers from seven majority-muslim nations from entering the united states. the bans could be easily undone, as they were issued by executive order and presidential proclamation, according to policy experts, but lawsuits from conservatives could delay the process.
3 COVID-19 PANDEMIC RESTRICTIONS
trump implemented a series of sweeping restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic that kept some legal immigrants and travellers from entering the united states. trump also barred entry of certain immigrants seeking permanent residence and temporary foreign workers, including certain skilled workers with h-1B visas, saying he needed to protect american jobs. a federal judge in october blocked trump’s temporary foreign worker ban from being applied to hundreds of thousands of businesses, a ruling the trump administration has appealed. while Biden has criticised some of these restrictions, he has not said if he would immediately reverse them. a Biden campaign official said the Democrat would look to public health officials for guidance on pandemic-related border closures.
4 SKILLED FOREIGN WORKERS
the trump administration finalised a pair of regulations in october that likely will curb us companies’ use of skilled foreign workers, especially in the tech industry. the regulations significantly increase the minimum wages companies must pay to workers enrolled in the programme. the rules also narrow the definition of “specialty occupations” eligible for the visas. Biden has not said whether he would roll back the measures if elected, but his campaign website said he would work with congress to reform the h-1B visa programme to ensure the visas are “aligned with the labour market and not used to undermine wages.” after that, Biden would support expanding the number of high-skilled visas, the website says.
5 REFUGEES
Biden has said he would raise the annual ceiling for refugee admissions to 125,000 but has not said how quickly that would happen. trump has sharply curbed refugee admissions and his administration announced in september that it would allow no more than 15,000 refugees in the 2021 fiscal year, a figure Biden will likely increase.
6 THE US-MEXICO BORDER
Biden’s immigration plan would end the diversion of pentagon funds to build a wall on the us-mexican border and instead invest in screening infrastructure at ports of entry. he said in august that he would not tear down border walls built under trump but would halt construction. Biden has vowed to end trump’s restrictive asylum policies, beginning with a programme known as “remain in mexico.” under the programme, formally known as the migrant protection protocols, non-mexican migrants are forced to wait in mexico for their us immigration court dates.