Immigration policy of the Joe Biden administration

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President Joe Biden receives an operational briefing from U.S. Border Patrol, USCIS and ICE at the Brownsville Border Patrol Station on February 29, 2024. President Joe Biden receives an operational briefing from U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Immigration Customs Enforcement at the Brownsville Border Patrol Station on February 29, 2024.jpg
President Joe Biden receives an operational briefing from U.S. Border Patrol, USCIS and ICE at the Brownsville Border Patrol Station on February 29, 2024.

The immigration policy of American President Joseph Biden initially focused on reversing many of the immigration policies of the previous Trump administration, before implementing stricter enforcement mechanisms later in his term.

Contents

During his first day in office, Biden unveiled the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 and reversed many of Trump's policies on immigration, such as halting the construction of the Mexican border wall, travel ban, and signed an executive order to reaffirm protections for DACA recipients. [1] [2] [3] The Biden administration and Department of Homeland Security, under leadership of Alejandro Mayorkas, reined in deportation practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), prioritizing national security and violent crime concerns over petty and nonviolent offenses. [4]

Between January 2021 and January 2024, US Border Patrol confirmed more than 7.2 million illegal migrants trying to cross the US-Mexico border, not counting gotaways. [5] [6] [7] 2023 was a record year with over 2.5 million encounters. [8] Biden faced criticism from immigrant advocates for extending Title 42, a Trump administration border restriction that arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as restarting the use of "expedited removal" of certain Central American families. [9] In January 2023, Biden announced a humanitarian parole program to increase the admission of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, while also announcing that his administration would crack down on those who fail to use the plan's legal pathway and strengthen border security. [10] Nearly 530,000 migrants took advantage of the parole program as of August 2024. [11] Biden also launched the CBP One app in January 2023 to allow migrants to schedule asylum appointments online, which has been used by 813,000 people as of August 2024. [11] [12] In May 2023, the Biden Administration approved sending 1,500 more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border following Title 42's expiration. [13] [14]

On June 23, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Biden administration immigration policy which involves the deportation of people deemed public safety threats or who were picked up at the border could be enforced. [15] A separate ruling upheld the prosecution of people who encourage illegal immigration. [16] On June 4, 2024, Biden passed an executive order to shut down the border if illegal crossings reached an average of 2,500 migrants a day in a given week. [17] Migrant encounters subsequently dropped down to 2020 levels. [18] [19]

Background

Over 86 million people have immigrated to the U.S. legally since 1783, [20] making immigrants a foundation to U.S. foreign policy. Immigration policies have changed from president to president. There are significant differences between the immigration policies of the two major political parties, the Democratic Party and Republican Party. [21] [22]

Immigration to the United States is the international movement of non-U.S. nationals in order to reside permanently in the country. Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of U.S. history. [23]

Immigration policy

Border wall

Presidential Proclamation 10141 - Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to the United States Proclamation 10141 - Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to the United States (2021).pdf
Presidential Proclamation 10141 – Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to the United States

On January 20, 2021, soon after his inauguration, Biden halted the construction of Trump's Mexican border wall, [2] ending the national emergency declared by the Trump administration in February 2019. [3]

Travel ban

Biden also ended the Trump travel ban, a series of three executive orders imposed by Donald Trump on 14 countries, most of them Muslim, in January 2017. [2] [3]

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

Biden also reaffirmed protections to DACA recipients and urged Congress to enact permanent protections for the 700,000 undocumented immigrants benefited by the policy. [1]

Deferred Enforced Departure

The same day, Biden sent a memorandum to the Department of State reinstating Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Liberians, deferring the deportation of any "person without nationality who last habitually resided in Liberia, who is present in the United States and who was under a grant of DED as of January 10, 2021" until June 30, 2022. [24] [25]

Deportations

US southwest border encounters throughout Biden's term in office 2020- Apprehensions at U.S. southwest border.svg
US southwest border encounters throughout Biden's term in office

The administration also issued a pause on deportations from the Department of Homeland Security for the first 100 days of Biden's presidency. [27]

On January 22, 2021, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration on the grounds of violating Biden's written pledge to cooperatively work with the State of Texas. [28]

On January 26, 2021, federal judge Drew B. Tipton blocked the Biden administration's 100-day deportation memorandum, citing that the state of Texas would indeed "suffer imminent and irreparable harm" and the restraining order requested by Paxton would not harm the administration nor the public. [29]

In July 2021, Biden resumed "expedited removal" of certain Central American families to be sent back in weeks instead of years. [9] In January 2022 the Biden administration deported Venezuelan migrants to Colombia without a chance to seek asylum after entering the United States from Mexico. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security declared it would deport Venezuelans to Colombia “on a regular basis", limited to migrants that resided in Colombia previously. [30]

In October, the Biden administration invoked Title 42, a Trump era measure, to expel Venezuelan migrants to Mexico. [31] Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticized the decision. [32] [33] On November 15, 2022, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that expulsions under Title 42 were a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and that it was an “arbitrary and capricious" violation of the Act. [34] The ruling required the United States government to process all asylum seekers under immigrant law as previous to Title 42's implementation. [34] The ruling was celebrated by the ACLU, a plaintiff in the case. [34] [35] In response to the ruling, a group of states seeking to keep the policy in place appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and on December 19, 2022, Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily maintained Title 42 and stayed the decision by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. [36] [37] [38] In the year after Title 42 ended, the Biden administration deported more people than in any year since 2010. [39]

As of February 2024, Biden nonetheless deported or expelled a smaller share of migrants who crossed the border than Donald Trump did. Deportations by ICE also fell to an average of 35,000 per year, versus 80,000 a year during Trump's presidency. [5]

Unlawful spouses of American citizens

In 2020, Biden declared to reverse the actions by the former Trump administration and planned to create a task force designed to specifically reunite and keep separated families back together. [40] [ verification needed ][ needs update ] On 26 January 2021, Biden rescinded the controversial family separation policy that was implemented during the Trump administration. [41]

On 19 August 2024, President Biden announced a new program called Keeping Families Together specifically created for legally married spouses of U.S. citizens without legal status in the country. Referring the older law reserved for military personnels since 1952, the law was expanded to civilian spouses of U.S. citizens married before 17 June 2024. These spouses are given the opportunity to be inspected and either admitted or paroled into the country to later have a path to citizenship through their spouse. The new procedures will allow any undocumented spouse of good moral character, with some discretionary restrictions, who has been in the country for validated record of at least ten years to apply for parole in place, giving them the legal status needed to subsequently apply for a legal authorization to work, permanent residency and eventual American citizenship.

The controversial program was later sued by the various Attorney Generals of sixteen American states and was adjudicated as unlawful and unenforceable by the U.S. Federal Judge John Campbell Barker at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Tyler on 7 November 2024. [42]

On 13 November 2024, the USCIS formally issued a directive complying with the U.S. Federal Court Order and shall no longer adjudicate its pending cases. Accordingly, it shall cease accepting applications for the program, along with canceling any scheduled biometric appointments for current applicants. [43]

The Biden administration has encouraged legal pathways for immigrants, including by opening regional processing centers in Latin America to help migrants apply for asylum, and expanded access to CBP One, a mobile application for migrants to schedule asylum appointments. [44] 813,000 migrants entered the country legally through Mexico by making appointments on CBP One between January 2023 and August 2024. [11]

Other Parole programs

The Biden administration has relied heavily on parole, including the humanitarian parole of detained migrants, and targeted programs for certain nationalities. Under a parole program started in 2022, as many as 30,000 migrants per month could legally fly to the United States from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, or Haiti.

The Biden administration has argued these programs help reduce illegal Mexico-United States border crossings. [44] This controversial program was terminated in August 2024 due to concerns about fraudulent practices among sponsors, after approximately 520,000 migrants had used the program. [45] The parole programs have been the subject of lawsuits by multiple Republican-led states. [44]

Mexican border

In January 2022, Biden called Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to speak about immigration, where Biden spoke of reducing immigration from Mexico to the United States by targeting the root causes, [46] including $4 billion to aid development in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. [47]

The U.S. Border Patrol made more than 1.7 million arrests of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in fiscal year 2021, the highest number ever recorded. [48] [49] More than 7.2 million migrants total were encountered between January 2021 and January 2024, and there were over 1.5 million "gotaways" between fiscal year 2021 and 2023. [5] [6] 2.3 million migrants were released into the country at the border between 2021 and 2023, compared to 6 million who were taken into custody by the CBP. [50]

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

On February 7, 2021, Biden began the implementation of new guidelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, forbidding or restricting them from seeking out deportations on the basis of "drug based crimes (less serious offenses), simple assault, DUI, money laundering, property crimes, fraud, tax crimes, solicitation, or charges without convictions," as stated by Tae Johnson, the acting director of ICE, instead prioritizing "violent behavior, well-documented gang affiliations," and a record of child abuse, murder, rape, and major drug infractions. [4] Deportations merely on the basis of at least 10-year old felonies or "loose" gang affiliations would also be prevented. The guidelines also required permission from the director of ICE for agents to arrest suspects outside of jails and prisons. As of February 7, 2021, the guidelines were awaiting confirmation from Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.[ needs update ]

On February 27, 2021, the Biden administration moved to expand the government's capacity to house migrant children as it attempts to respond to an increase in border crossings of unaccompanied minors, notably by its re-opening of a temporary influx holding facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas. [51]

Refugees

On February 4, 2021, Biden signed an executive order aimed at rescinding some of Trump's immigration policies. [52] It also called for a review to determine whether Afghan and Iraqi applicants for the Special Immigrant Visa were unduly delayed. The order also called for a report on the effect of man-made Climate change on environmental immigration to the United States within 180 days. [53] It reversed a 2019 executive order restricting federal funding for the resettlement of refugees unless state and local governments to consent to it. However, a federal judge already struck down the order in January 2020. [52]

In fiscal year 2022, the Biden administration resettled 25,465 people through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, followed by 60,014 refugees in fiscal year 2023. [54] For fiscal year 2024, the refugee cap was once again set at 125,000. [55]

Asylum

In early 2021, the Biden administration issued an executive order restoring an Obama-era policy repealed by Trump that grants asylum to apprehended migrants fleeing domestic or gang violence, allowing them to stay in the United States while their case is being reviewed. [56]

Effective May 11, 2023, the Biden administration issued new restrictions on asylum seekers at the Mexican border to discourage people arriving at the border illegally. [57] DHS and DOJ finalized a new rule effective after the end of Title 42 to further incentivize individuals to use lawful, safe, and orderly pathways. [58] [59] The rule presumes those who do not use lawful pathways to enter the United States are ineligible for asylum and allows the United States to remove individuals who do not establish a reasonable fear of persecution or torture in the country of removal. Noncitizens can rebut this presumption based only on exceptionally compelling circumstances. The ACLU immediately challenged the rule as a continuation of a previous Trump administration rule that was enjoined in 2018. [60] [61]

On June 4, 2024, Biden passed an executive order to shut down the border if illegal crossings reached an average of 2,500 migrants a day in a given week. [17]

The order suspended protection for asylum seekers without a "credible fear" for requiring asylum, allowing for immediate deportation of unauthorized migrants. [62] The order went into effect immediately after it was signed due to the threshold of 2,500+ daily border encounters being met for its execution. [63] As part of the new action, the Biden administration announced the closure of the South Texas Family Residential Center, the largest immigrant detention center in the United States. The primary reason cited for this decision was the high cost of operating the facility. [64]

President Biden (left) with United States Border Patrol agents in Brownsville, Texas in 2024 P20240229AS-0715.jpg
President Biden (left) with United States Border Patrol agents in Brownsville, Texas in 2024

Public charge rule

After courts struck down Trump's 2019 tightening of the public charge rule, Biden adopted a narrower version in September 2022 that prevents immigrants from becoming citizens if they will be primarily dependent on the government for subsistence. [65] The 2019 rule had previously denied immigrants green cards if they were to use benefits like Medicaid. [66]

Canadian border

On March 24, 2023, President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced tougher immigration policies for people traveling through the Canada-U.S. border after revising the Safe Third Country agreement. [67] Trudeau confirmed that the new policy would go into effect that midnight. [67] Under the new agreement, Canada will be allowed to send migrants who cross at unofficial ports of entry at America's northern border back to the U.S., while the U.S. will also be able to turn back asylum seekers who travel across the border from Canada. [67] In return, Trudeau agreed to allow 15,000 more people from the Western Hemisphere to migrate to Canada legally. [67]

Congressional legislation supported

U.S. Citizenship Act (2021)

On his first day in office in January 2021, Biden proposed the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 which would have made the pathway to citizenship easier for those already in the United States, provide funding to reduce asylum backlogs and strengthen the border and ports of entry through modern technology. [68] It also would have replaced the word "alien" with "noncitizen" in United States immigration law. [69] [70] On January 23, 2021, Biden introduced the immigration bill to Congress, however it was not passed. [71] As introduced, the bill would have given a path to citizenship to 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. The bill also would have made it easier for foreign workers to stay in the U.S. [2] [72] [73]

Bipartisan Border Security Bill (2023-2024)

In February 2024 and again in May 2024, Republicans in the Senate blocked a bipartisan border security bill Biden had pushed for to reduce the number of migrants who can claim asylum at the border and provide more money for Customs and Border Protection officials, asylum officers, immigration judges and scanning technology at the border. [74] It also provided for thousands of work visas for migrant spouses of U.S. citizens awaiting immigrant visas, and 250,000 new visas over five years for people seeking to work in the U.S. or join family members. [75] It was negotiated in a bipartisan manner and initially looked like it had the votes to pass until Donald Trump opposed it, citing that it would boost Biden's reelection chances. [76] [74] [77] Five senators on the left voted against it for not providing enough relief for migrants already in the United States. [74]

Reception

Republicans

In response to the series of executive orders signed on February 4, 2021, intended to rescind former President Donald Trump's policies regarding refugees and resettlement, Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas argued that Biden's relaxed immigration policy would "put American jobs and safety at risk during a pandemic." [52] Cotton also argued in a Fox & Friends interview that "A lot of these migrants that are coming, we have no way to screen their backgrounds for either health or for security" in response to the Biden administration, a claim debunked by PolitiFact. [78]

On January 17, 2024, a Republican-led non-binding resolution denouncing the Biden-Harris administration's handling of the U.S. southern border passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 225–187, with 211 Republicans and 14 Democrats supporting it. [79] [80] [81]

On February 13, 2024, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached on a 214-213 party-line vote by the United States House of Representatives over his handling of the Mexico–United States border. [82]

On July 25, 2024, the United States House of Representatives voted 220–196 to pass another Republican-led resolution condemning the Biden-Harris administration for their handling of the U.S. southern border. Six Democrats voted with all Republicans in the House to pass the resolution. [83] [84]

Democrats

In March 2021, the immigration policy of Joe Biden continued to draw criticism after a series of pictures emerged of a crowded detention facility housing migrant children. Democratic U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar released photos from the migrant facility in Donna, Texas, which showed children in an overcrowded border facility. Cuellar claimed the children were being held in “terrible conditions”. Cuellar said the facility consists of “pods” that can hold up to 260 people. Cuellar said one particular pod housed 400 boys. [85]

Advocacy groups

In February 2021, President of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service Krish O'Mara Vignarajah commended Biden's proposed eight-fold increase of the refugee cap, stating that it would save the lives of "hundreds of thousands fleeing violence and persecution." [52] As many as 160 criminal justice and immigration advocacy groups signed a letter that month arguing Biden should do more than just reverse Trump's immigration policies and achieve comprehensive immigration reform and racial justice, citing immigration policies enacted during the Bush and Obama administrations such as Operation Streamline. [86] [ verification needed ][ better source needed ] Jacinta Gonzalez, representing Mijente, criticized Biden's initial immigration policy, arguing that "[Biden] said he would phase out private prisons but didn't end contracts with private detention centers where most immigrants are being locked up." Activists also referenced the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Forces, a group intended to bridge the divide between the moderate and progressive wings of the party, whose recommendations included the end of "mass prosecutions of individuals who cross the border without regards to the facts and circumstances of their cases...that deny individuals their right to a fair hearing and due process," as well as ending the criminalization of illegal immigration and prioritizing services to provide economic and humanitarian aid to undocumented immigrants.[ undue weight? – discuss ]

In January 2023, advocates would condemn Biden's tougher approach to immigration including plans to strengthen Title 42 deportations for immigrants who crossed the Southern U.S. border. [87] [ relevant? – discuss ]

ICE officials

In response to Biden's order on February 7, 2021, an anonymous ICE official chafed that the Biden administration had "abolished ICE without abolishing ICE [...] The pendulum swing is so extreme. It literally feels like we've gone from the ability to fully enforce our immigration laws to now being told to enforce nothing." [4] Other ICE officials and agents argued that said changes were more dramatic than even Biden promised during his campaign. On the other hand, former acting director of ICE under the Obama administration, John Sandweg, commended the actions, criticizing the Trump administration's policies as authoritarian and distracting from violent criminals, and drawing the comparison that "No one judges the FBI by the number of arrests they make. They judge them by the quality of arrests." [4]

Polling

A Morning Consult poll released in March 2021 found that 49% of American voters disapproved of Joe Biden's immigration policy with only 40% approving. Overall, 70% of Democrats and 11% of Republicans approve of Joe Biden's immigration policies. [88] Another poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released in April 2021 found that 42% of Americans approved of Joe Biden's immigration policies with 74% of Democrats and 10% of Republicans approving. In addition, 74% of African Americans, 50% of Hispanics, and 34% of white Americans approve of Biden's immigration policy. [89]

In a February 2023 Gallup poll, 33% of Americans approved of Joe Biden's immigration policies, with 62% of Democrats, 31% of Independents, and 6% of Republicans approving. [90] A February 2024 Monmouth poll found that 26% of Americans approved of Biden's handle on immigration while 71% disapproved. [91] In a Marquette poll taken that same month, 54% of Americans said that Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, would do a better job handling immigration compared to 26% who preferred Biden. [92] [ needs update ]

Causes and impact

As of the spring of 2024, immigration during the Biden administration has been credited as a major driver of economic growth, in part by helping to address the large labor shortage during the COVID-19 recovery as many workers retired or took different jobs. [93] [94] [95] The large number of job openings played an important role in motivating migration as the pandemic was receding. [93] The rise in immigration has also been credited with helping to moderate inflation, [95] [94] though the impact is debated. [96] The Economist cites Giovanni Peri who says that immigrants tend to raise wages in communities that they move to as they allow for more specialization by taking lower-paying jobs, competing mostly with the last generation of immigrants for pay. [96]

The surge in immigration is also not without costs on various systems that are adjusting to the influx, [94] including housing shortages. [96]

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References

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  2. 1 2 3 4 Bradner, Eric; Klein, Betsy (January 20, 2021). "Biden targets Trump's legacy with first-day executive actions". CNN . Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "Biden's first act: Orders on pandemic, climate, immigration". Associated Press . January 20, 2021. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Miroff, Nick; Sacchetti, Maria (February 7, 2021). "New Biden rules for ICE point to fewer arrests and deportations, and a more restrained agency that allows for a higher influx of migrants from Latin America". The Washington Post . Retrieved December 29, 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 Miroff, Nick; Sacchetti, Maria; Frostenson, Sarah (2024-02-11). "Trump vs. Biden on immigration: 12 charts comparing U.S. border security". Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-09-01. Illegal border crossings soared to record levels under President Biden, averaging 2 million per year from 2021 to 2023.
  6. 1 2 Liles, Jordan (2024-02-22). "7.2M Migrants Have Illegally Crossed US Border Under Biden, Exceeding the Populations of 36 States?". Snopes. Retrieved 2024-09-07.
  7. ↑ Gramlich, John; Scheller, Alissa. "What's happening at the U.S.-Mexico border in 7 charts". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  8. ↑ Garsd, Jasmine (2023-12-22). "An unprecedented year in immigration, and in anti-immigration rhetoric". NPR. Retrieved 2024-09-14.
  9. 1 2 Narea, Nicole (2021-08-04). "Biden's immigration policy isn't Trump's — but it's still a disappointment". Vox. Retrieved 2021-09-02.
  10. ↑ Ward, Myah (5 January 2022). "Biden announces new program to curb illegal migration as he prepares for visit to border". Politico. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
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