Executive orders, memoranda and guidelines coming from the Oval Office are expected to continue on Tuesday, with the announcement of a task force to reunite migrant families separated by immigration officials under then President Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy.
The flurry of movements was a mixture of the symbolic and the substantive, and together they represent a stark departure from Trump’s rhetoric and policy, even if the prospects for the most brutal action yet – a broad immigration law – remain highly questionable due to Republican opposition.
The most optimistic supporters say that Biden’s actions could spur some two-pronged efforts to provide a path to citizenship for many of the approximately 11 million people living in the United States without authorized status, including day care workers, janitors, and farm workers who have a some of the most essential jobs in the midst of a crippling pandemic. But overhauling the country’s immigration laws will be difficult after decades of political stalemate – and more difficult in a tightly divided congress with the ghost of Trump still looming over the Republican Party.
“We weren’t born yesterday,” said Frank Sharry, founder and executive director of America’s Voice, a pro-immigrant rights group. “But it does create an opening. I think we are about to start a new day in the way we approach immigration. “
Biden set the tone for immigration on his first day of work when he signed a slew of actions to undo what he saw as damage done under Trump’s harsh immigration policy.
He overturned bans on travelers from certain Muslim-majority countries, halted border wall projects along the country’s southern border, and completely reinstated the delayed action program for the arrival of children, which temporarily postpones the deportation of immigrants brought to the country as children . Biden too has revoked the Trump administration’s orders aimed at stricter immigration enforcement in the interior of the country and to exempt immigrants without citizenship or legal status from inclusion in the US Census.
And he sent a broad immigration bill to Congress “to restore humanity and American values” to the immigration system, the legislation first described by Vice President Kamala Harris on the Spanish-language network Univision. It would enable nearly 11 million immigrants with no legal status to become citizens for eight years, and it would create shortcuts to citizenship for agricultural workers and DACA recipients.
The actions fulfill a campaign promise Biden made to address criticism of his own track record after former President Obama delayed addressing the issue and chaired aggressive deportations.
The Biden administration’s actions have been framed over the past six months, with input from a unity task force formed by Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as well as veterans of previous political battles on the issue, including federal officials and lawmakers. Notably absent from the plan are the funding requests for more troops and militarization along the US-Mexico border, which have dominated the discourse on immigration reform since 9/11, although part of Biden’s immigration law involves using technology for border surveillance.
Even the language is steeped in symbolism.
For decades, the damage caused by the word “alien” has been studied and discussed, as it is used by groups on the right and left to create distance between natives and foreigners. Over time, it has increasingly been associated with the word ‘illegal’. in the form of a blemish. And the term was favored by Trump and other hardliners, who also understood that words weigh heavily: Under Trump, Citizenship and Immigration Services removed a passage from their mission statement describing the United States as “a nation of immigrants.”
The attempt to get rid of immigration laws “ alien ” signals a change in attitudes, said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor in the School of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“It’s a powerful move – not in terms of operational legislation – but symbolically it’s important,” he said. “I use the term non-citizen in everything I write. I think this is the best neutral term. “
Still, the first full week of Biden’s presidency was delivered memories of the challenges.
A Texas judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked Biden’s attempt to interrupt deportations for 100 days and sided with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican who has been closely watching for his role in instigating the Jan. 6 uprising, blocked a quick confirmation vote for the candidate for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, calling his alignment with Biden’s immigration priorities.
The move sparked criticism from former DHS secretaries Janet Napolitano, who served under Obama, and Michael Chertoff, who served under President George W. Bush. “The tradition is, understandably, for national security positions within the incoming government to be confirmed on the day of the inauguration,” Chertoff told reporters.
Biden’s efforts mark perhaps the most sweeping approach to immigration since then-President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in 1986 granting citizenship to approximately 3 million people. Since then, Congress has increasingly merged the country’s immigration and criminal law laws, expanded the list of offenses that would lead to deportation, provided incentives to detain immigrants, and foster coordination between federal law enforcement and immigration services.
Attempts by Congress to rethink the system in recent decades have failed among Democrats and Republicans.
The irony, historians and Democrats said, is that Trump was trying to ramp up a deportation and immigration enforcement machine by portraying divisive and racist rhetoric immigrants – here legal and illegal – as potential criminals and terrorists. But the biggest threat to national security now is domestic: white supremacists like those who stormed the Capitol. And immigrants play a vital role as vital frontline workers during the pandemic.
“I find it really poetic that Trump’s first week in office began with the travel ban and ended his last week in office when our nation was paralyzed by a pandemic and a shortage of doctors and nurses,” said Kari E. Hong, associate professor at Boston. College Law School. “That travel ban was announced to keep the terrorists out, but it kept the doctors out.”
Congressional Democrats said they are in talks with some moderate Republicans about the best two-pronged approach to move Biden’s proposal forward. White House officials have said they are open to breaking it to pieces, prioritizing protection, for example for Dreamers and holders of temporary protective status.
Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas who has met with Biden’s policy advisers, said he remained hopeful that Congress could pass major immigration laws, given that Biden and the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate were – finally – on the same page. . “
Still, progressive House Democrats like Michigan’s Pramila Jayapal plan to keep Biden’s promise of broader immigration reform after Trump helped push public sentiment on the immigration issue to the left. “Everyone got to see it in scary, high-def colors, and that really brought about a change in how people do see the problem, ”she said.
She and representatives Ayanna Pressley from Boston and Jesus “Chuy” García from Illinois have introduced a roadmap to decriminalize and address systemic racism in the US immigration system.
Other lawmakers have been quick to revive earlier proposals: Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey Calls for Legislation to End Refugees Admitted and Establish an Office to Help “New Americans” Find Work , Learn English and navigate their new country.
“I am hopeful that we will have a working group of Democrats and Republicans who can come together to shape a new immigration policy for our country,” said Markey. “It has happened before, in 2013, and I hope it happens again.”
But Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said the Democrats didn’t reach him – and even if they did, the talk should start with enforcement. “I think it starts with enforcing our laws and moving from there,” he said.
Such Republican opposition poses major problems for immigration laws in a closely divided Senate and Chamber.
Lorella Praeli, co-chair of Community Change, was one of the long-term immigrant rights activists who helped Biden and Harris shape their approach, and said immigrant rights groups like hers don’t see the congressional battle as an “ all-or-nothing game. ” . “
She was in high school when she found out she was living in the United States without papers, and in college when she fully understood the word “ alien ” for what it was: a term that brought shame and stigma with it and became used to label someone as “Other.”
Years later, she still had not obtained legal status when the Dream Act, which allegedly offered temporary legal residence to authorized minors, narrowly failed in 2010. She and other young activists had watched the vote from the Senate Chamber.
“It was heartbreaking and disappointing, and it was also a stimulating moment,” she said. “We walked out and we started chanting that we were going to fight – and that we would win, and that it was only a matter of time.”
Reach Jazmine Ulloa at [email protected] or on Twitter: @jazmineulloa.