President Joe Biden will not use his predecessor’s powers to expel unaccompanied immigrant children from the southern border, despite a federal appeals court clearing the way for him last week, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday.
Between March 2020 and the fall, the Department of Homeland Security expelled unaccompanied immigrant children from the U.S. border more than 13,000 times under the guidance of former President Donald Trump, according to internal documents obtained by BuzzFeed News.
Previously, unaccompanied children were sent to government-run shelters while trying to pursue their asylum cases. But the Trump administration argued that the policy was necessary to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
On Tuesday, a White House spokesman told BuzzFeed News that the new government’s policy “is not to expel unaccompanied children who arrive at our borders.”
“The president’s approach is to deal with immigration in a comprehensive, fair and humane way,” added the spokesman, noting that the government has already refused to turn its back on unaccompanied children. Biden signed an order on Tuesday instructing authorities to review whether canceling the entire policy, which also led to the expulsion of thousands of adults, is necessary.
The White House statement came after a federal court panel decided to suspend a November order that had blocked the Trump administration from using a CDC coronavirus public health device to expel children.
Expulsions are legally different from deportations, which would mean that an immigrant actually went through the immigration process and was considered legally prohibited from staying in the USA. Critics said the Trump administration was using public health orders as an excuse to violate federal laws governing the processing of unaccompanied minors at the border.
Before the pandemic, unaccompanied children picked up by Border Patrol agents would be sent to the Refugee Resettlement Office to be housed in shelters, as they officially began to apply for asylum and waited to meet with their family members in the U.S.
The ORR referral process was created by the Reauthorization of the Protection of Victims of Trafficking Act, which was signed by then President George W. Bush in 2008. According to the law, Border Patrol officers are generally required to refer children within 72 hours for the US refugee agency.
Biden government officials said the process would continue as it has since November, when US judge Emmet Sullivan blocked the rapid return of children to the border.
“The Border Patrol will continue to transfer unaccompanied children to the HHS Refugee Resettlement Office so that they can be properly cared for in appropriate shelters, in their best interests,” said the White House spokesman.