Immigration: Biden will sign executive orders and establish task force to bring together separate families

Immigration: Biden will sign executive orders and establish task force to bring together separate families

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The latest requests are based on actions taken in Biden’s early days in office and begin to provide a clearer picture of the government’s immigration priorities.

“President Trump was so focused on the wall that he did nothing to address the root cause of why people are coming to our southern border. It was a limited, useless and naive strategy, and it failed,” said a senior government official. . “President Biden’s approach is to deal with immigration in a comprehensive, fair and humane way.”

After hours of his presidency, Biden acted to quickly undo many policies of the Trump administration in a series of executive actions. He also sent an immigration bill to Congress. But his government has already faced legal obstacles in implementing these policies. Last week, for example, a federal judge temporarily blocked Biden’s 100-day break from deportations, as the case continues.

Legal challenges are likely to continue to haunt the government as it sets its immigration agenda. On Tuesday, Biden is expected to monitor his actions on the first day, combating family separation, the roots of migration and the legal immigration system.

The Senate is also expected to confirm Alejandro Mayorkas as secretary of homeland security on Tuesday, after Monday night’s vote was postponed due to the weather.

Creation of a task force to reunify families

During his presidential campaign, Biden pledged to create a task force focused on identifying and reunifying separated families on the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration’s controversial “zero tolerance” policy. The new government task force emerges from this promise.

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The task force will be chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and will work across the United States government, along with partners, to find parents separated from their children under the previous administration. CNN previously reported that First Lady Jill Biden must take an active role in the task force.

He will be in charge of identifying all children separated from their parents or legal guardians on the southern border, facilitating and enabling the reunification of children with their families, and providing regular reports to the President, including one containing recommendations.

The consequences of the “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation of thousands of families are still being felt today. Lawyers are unable to contact the parents of 611 children who were separated from their families by U.S. border officials between 2017 and 2018, according to the latest lawsuit in an ongoing family separation case.

“The Biden government is committed to remedying this terrible damage that the Trump administration has inflicted on families,” said a senior government official, calling the policy “moral failure” and “national shame”.

The Justice Department also officially rescinded the policy last week in a memo to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, although it had already been closed.

Cases of separate families will be examined individually to determine next steps. “The objective of the task force is one to identify, but two to make recommendations on how families can be brought together, taking into account the menu of options that exists in the immigration law,” said the official.

Addressing the root causes of migration

This executive order will focus on providing support to Central America to stem the flow of migrants to the US-Mexico border and provide other ways to migrate to the US without traveling north.

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The government plans to provide aid to the region to support anti-corruption initiatives and revive the Central American juvenile program that was terminated by Trump and allows certain at-risk youth to live in the United States, according to a senior government official.

Homeland Security will also be directed to review the Trump era policy that requires non-Mexican migrants to remain in Mexico until the date of the immigration court in the United States. The policy, informally known as “Staying in Mexico”, has left thousands of asylum seekers waiting in dangerous and deplorable conditions at the border.
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The Biden government has suspended new enrollments in the program, but has not released its plans to deal with the thousands of migrants still waiting in Mexico, saying only that they will be taken into account as new systems are put in place.

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“The situation at the border is not going to change overnight,” said a senior government official. “This is largely due to the damage done in the past four years, but we are committed to addressing it fully.”

The order will also require a series of actions to restore the asylum system, which has been drastically altered in the past four years and has made it extremely difficult for migrants to obtain asylum in the United States.

Reviewing the legal immigration system

This executive order aims to promote the integration and inclusion of immigrants, according to the White House, and to reestablish a Task Force for New Americans.

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Like other executive orders, it also seeks to reverse Trump-era policies aimed at low-income immigrants, including calling for a revision of the public charging rule that makes it more difficult for immigrants to obtain legal status if they use public benefits like Medicaid , meal vouchers and housing vouchers.

The order also begins a review of the naturalization process to speed it up and make it more accessible, according to a senior government official.

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