Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Biden's Executive Orders on Immigration Hint at Future Action

Aline Barros

   U.S. President Joe Biden's executive orders this week reversing Trump
   administration immigration policies change little on the ground now but
   set the stage for future action, experts told VOA.

   It is a message Biden himself reinforced when he signed three orders
   Tuesday.

   "I want to make it clear -- there's a lot of talk, with good reason,
   about the number of executive orders that I have signed. I'm not making
   new law. I'm eliminating bad policy," [1]he told reporters.

   For now, immigrant rights advocates are signaling a wait-and-see
   approach as the new administration launches a process to review
   restrictive immigration policies implemented by Trump.

   "If there's an existing regulation, and then there's a process to go
   through to get rid of the regulation, some things are just going to
   take longer than others as a procedural matter," Omar Jadwat, director
   of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Immigrants' Rights
   Project, told VOA.

   Backers of the Trump administration's immigration initiatives are
   warning of chaos at the U.S. southern border if policies return to what
   they were before Trump was in the White House.

   Task force to reunite separated families

   [2]Biden's first action ordered a task force to identify all migrant
   children who were separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico
   border under the previous administration's "Zero Tolerance" policy for
   undocumented arrivals. It also instructed the task force to facilitate
   family reunification and examine whether those families are eligible
   for immigration relief under current immigration law.

   In 2018, the Trump administration directed U.S. attorneys to detain
   anyone who crossed the border illegally, breaking with long-standing
   U.S. policies to release most asylum-seekers pending their immigration
   court dates.

References

   1. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/02/remarks-by-president-biden-at-signing-of-executive-orders-advancing-his-priority-to-modernize-our-immigration-system/
   2. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/02/executive-order-on-the-establishment-of-interagency-task-force-on-the-reunification-of-families/

.