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Biden Expected to Reverse Many of Trump's Immigration Policies

Aline Barros

   President-elect Joe Biden is expected to reverse many of President
   Donald Trump's landmark immigration policies after he takes office next
   year. Though untangling some immigration guidelines most likely will
   take time, [1]Biden has vowed to reverse limits on temporary workers,
   loosen visa restrictions on international students, halt border wall
   construction and end private immigration detention centers.

   [2]As VOA recently reported, Biden [3]is expected to prioritize
   restoring DACA -- an Obama-era program that protects undocumented
   immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children from deportation --
   rescind travel restrictions on 13 countries and put in place a 100-day
   freeze on deportations while his administration issues new guidance.

   Temporary workers and international students

   When it comes to temporary workers and international students, where
   H-1B and F-1 visas allow nonimmigrants to live and work temporarily in
   the U.S. under certain conditions, experts said they believed the new
   president would overturn some of the restrictions implemented in the
   last four years.

   But Sarah Pierce, policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a
   nonpartisan organization in Washington that researches immigration
   policy, noted that immigration matters might not be at the top of
   Biden's to-do list during a pandemic that continues to inflict economic
   damage.

   "A lot of legal immigration stuff might move slower just because they
   have so much to do. '¦ But I would expect them to be friendly to H-1Bs
   '¦ and to, at the very least, walk back the restrictions put on by the
   Trump administration," Pierce said.

   Citing a need to protect American workers, the Trump administration
   signed an executive order to limit legal immigration and the issuance
   of temporary work visas. In November, the White House released another
   order restricting H-1B jobs by tightening the definition of "specialty
   occupation" that qualifies a foreign worker to be hired. Meanwhile, the
   Department of Labor released a rule increasing the minimum wages and
   salaries U.S. employers must pay foreign workers by 30%.

References

   1. https://joebiden.com/immigration/
   2. https://www.voanews.com/2020-usa-votes/us-immigration-policy-changes-expected-under-biden
   3. https://joebiden.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/UNITY-TASK-FORCE-RECOMMENDATIONS.pdf

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