Biden s Executive Actions: President Unilaterally Changes Immigration Policy
By Robert Law
on March 15, 2021
Robert Law is the director of regulatory affairs and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies. He would like to thank Josh Timko for his extensive research and analysis that informed the substance of this Backgrounder on the Biden immigration executive actions.
President Biden issued over three dozen executive actions during his first month in office, many of them focused on immigration. Some of the immigration executive actions revoked Trump administration immigration policies and introduced sweeping new policies, while others were more messaging documents with little-to-no practical impact. While the pace of immigration-specific executive actions has slowed recently, it is expected that the Biden administration will continue to rely on executive actions as a tool to reshape immigration policy throughout his term. This
The White House
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq., it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. For generations, immigrants have come to the United States with little more than the clothes on their backs, hope in their hearts, and a desire to claim their own piece of the American Dream. These mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters have made our Nation better and stronger.
The United States is also a country with borders and with laws that must be enforced. Securing our borders does not require us to ignore the humanity of those who seek to cross them. The opposite is true. We cannot solve the humanitarian crisis at our border without addressing the violence, instability, and lack of opportunity that compel so many people to flee their homes. Nor is the United States safer when resources that should be invested in policie
Biden Took 3 More Executive Actions on Immigration. Did He Go Far Enough?
On February 2, 2021, following the confirmation of Alejandro Mayorkas as secretary of Homeland Security, President Biden signed three executive orders that take steps to further unwind the Trump administration’s restrictions on immigration. The actions build on Biden’s first round of immigration changes, which he signed on Inauguration Day.
Here is a summary of the three most recent actions:
1. Creation of a Family Reunification Taskforce
Biden rescinded Trump’s executive order that justified family separation. He also called for the creation of an interagency taskforce that will identify children and parents separated under the Trump administration and facilitate their reunification.