This brief was originally published by Megan Garcia on February 9, 2022. It was updated and republished by Peyton Singletary on June 21, 2022.
Immigration policy is an area of policy that consistently changes with a shift in administration, illustrated most recently by former President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The Obama-Biden Administration oversaw a major transformation from the previous Bush Administration. President Obama was known to be the “deporter in chief” due to his immigration policy choices.
Campaign Platform and Early Actions
When Biden ran for office in 2020, his platform championed an immigration policy that consisted mainly of modernizing America’s immigration system. As stated on his presidential website, he planned to create a system that was more welcoming to immigrants, primarily by taking action to undo Trump’s policies. He also stated that legislation under the Obama-Biden Administration that removed families from one another must be changed.
When Biden first took office, he once again promised to reverse Trump-era immigration restrictions by boosting refugee admissions and providing deportation relief for unauthorized immigrants coming to the United States as children. However, Biden initially kept the Trump Administration’s FY2021 refugee ceiling—15,000—before bowing to pressure from activists and colleagues in the Democratic party who demanded higher refugee admissions. In FY2021 less than 12,000 refugees were resettled in the US, which the Biden Administration attributes to pandemic-relating complications and the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the refugee resettlement infrastructure. Despite Biden’s major campaign commitments to the legalization of unlawful immigrants and the strengthening of the country’s asylum structure, political opponents and media depict the president’s approach to immigration as stagnant and obtuse.
The Biden Administration also made individuals migrating from Venezuela and Burma eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS allows for and protects a select group of immigrants to live and work in the United States. With the Department of Homeland Security’s reevaluation of other countries, such as Haiti, Yemen, and Somalia, about 427,000 more individuals are eligible for TPS. Biden even proposed a bill titled the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which proposed the establishment of the policies previously mentioned to better maintain migration into the U.S., specifically the bill strived to accomplish a key aspects among many others:
- Create a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants
- Provide an immigration system that is focused to keep families together
- Build upon the budget for immigration enforcement at the border
- Improve the immigration courts (backlogs and training)
Reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols
During the current crisis at the Southern Border, U.S. District Court judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered the reimplementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), or the Remain in Mexico bill, in August. This bill forces asylum seekers, both with and without proper documentation, to stay in Mexico while their claims are processed in the United States immigration courts. This is a shift in policy, because previously asylum applicants resided in the United States while their claims were being considered. Under the Trump administration, the MPP was used to return around 60,000 asylum seekers to Mexico, many of whom were not Mexican but passed through Mexico in order to apply for asylum in the US. One sticking point of the court order to restart the MPP was that the Mexican government had to agree to accept returned asylum seekers. However, the MPP continues to be met with criticism which stems from the prospect of deporting asylum seekers without due process and despite safety measures and an individual’s desire to migrate in the first place. As of December 2nd, the Biden administration has reached a deal with the Mexican government to reimplement the Remain in Mexico program. The program formally begins on the 6th of December 2021, and will start at one border location and expand to seven other cities. However, this agreement comes with several conditions on the behalf of the Mexican government.
- Asylum seekers will be able to obtain legal counsel to assist them in making their claim, which is not currently a provision of the US system.
- Every applicant waiting in Mexico will receive a decision on their application within 6 months, to avoid an indefinite stay in limbo.
- Migrants will have access to a Covid-19 vaccine provided by the US government.
Changes to Northern Triangle Policy
The Northern Triangle region of Central America consists of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. The countries experience overwhelming political, social, and economic difficulties which lead to stratification, poverty, corrupt governance, and an influx in migrants to the United States. Under the Trump Administration, the United States ceased providing development aid to the region in an effort to motivate Northern Triangle governments to take a harder stance against emigration. On February 2, President Biden issued an executive order to address the root causes of migration and corruption within the Northern Triangle. In attacking the source of challenges within the region, the Biden administration hopes to:
- Increase GDP per capita to more than $8,000.
- Create more than three million jobs.
- Reduce the poverty rate by 15 percentage points.