During Biden’s first presidential debate with Trump last October, Biden referred to family separations at the border as making the U.S. a “laughing stock” and declared that it “[violated] every notion of who we are as a nation.”
The “zero-tolerance” immigration policies of the Trump-era gained the Democratic party much favor during the 2020 elections internationally, as people the world rallied against images of crying children and horror stories of cruel deportation practices. Many of those operations can be traced well beyond 2016 and were particularly inhumane during the Obama era. However, Biden’s term gave hope to immigrant families and advocates, particularly since the president set out to halt deportations in his first 100 days in office. As the Biden term reaches its first 50 days, here is what he has done so far on immigration.
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The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 was unveiled.
The Act aims to provide a path towards citizenship, reform the visa system, address root causes of immigration and manage the U.S./Mexico border “responsibly.” It also plans to establish an “earned path to citizenship” for immigrants who already live in the country, raising the number of green cards offered annually and offering residency to DACA recipients, STEM international students and long term (10 year) approved petitioners, among other candidates. However, undocumented immigration wasn’t explicitly addressed beyond a commitment to determine the factors that cause migrations worldwide and expand programs to manage the southern border.
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The no-deportation promise was not delivered.
It is difficult to estimate how many deportations have occurred since Biden’s inauguration because ICE only releases deportation statistics annually. However, immigrant advocacy groups have estimated the number to have surpassed 25,000 within Biden’s first 29 days as president. On January 20, the secretary of Homeland Security ordered a halt on deportations for 100 days. But this halt did not include immigrants who waived any rights to remain in the country during their detention period.
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Several shelters that hold unaccompanied migrant children were reopened or are preparing to reopen.
The administration was quick to point out differences from the “cages” used under the Trump administration, saying that their facilities’ education and recreational amenities improved care. But with those facilities reaching capacity, children are now being sent to temporary shelters, including a for-profit emergency influx in Florida which caused controversy in 2019 after sex abuse and child abuse claims came to light. Just this week, a record number of migrant children were in border patrol custody and have tripled in the last two weeks. In the just the first four days of March, 1,500 minors were taken into custody.
Although the Biden administration seems to be taking steps towards undoing the injustices enacted during the Trump administration regarding legal immigration, the crisis at the southern border from undocumented migration has only worsened.
