President Biden will sign three executive orders today that will aim at former President Trump’s hardline immigration policies and try to amend the consequences of those policies including establishing a task force designed to reunite families separated at the U.S.- Mexico border.
The latest orders build upon the actions taken by the President in his first days in office and begin to provide a clearer picture of the administration’s immigration priorities. A senior administration official stated, “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, wasteful, and naive strategy, and it failed. President Biden’s approach is to deal with immigration comprehensively, fairly, and humanely”.
Just hours into his presidency, Biden moved quickly to undo many Trump administration policies in a series of executive orders. He also sent an immigration bill to Congress, but his administration has already faced legal hurdles in implementing those policies. For example, last week, a federal judge temporarily blocked Biden’s 100-day pause on deportations.
President Biden is expected to follow his first-day actions today by tackling family separation, the root causes of migration, and the legal immigration system. The senate is also expected to confirm Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security Secretary today.
During his presidential campaign Biden promised to set up a task force to focused on identifying and reuniting separated families at the US-Mexico border.
The task force will be chaired by the Department of Homeland Security Secretary and work across the US government along with partners. It will be charged with 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. The first lady, Jill Biden, is also expected to take an active role in the task force.
Cases of separated families will be examined on an individual basis to determine the next steps. An administration official stated, “The goal of the task force is one to identify, but two to make recommendations as to how the families can be united, taking into account the menu of options that exist under immigration law”.
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