Biden's Immigration Plan and What Lies Ahead after 2020 Elections
President-elect Joe Biden is promising to fix our broken immigration system and revive the values of the USA as a welcoming nation of immigrants.
The last 4 years have left us with the most damaging anti-immigrant policies and adjudication trends. What’s more, the last administration has instilled hostile attitudes towards immigrants in the American people, which creates unbalance, conflict, and aggression within the society. In the years ahead the new administration is promising to undo the harm of Trump’s immigration policies and unite the American people.
Immigrants bring significant values to our nation, including contributions to the economy in key sectors from agriculture to technology. In fact, research shows that the total annual contribution of foreign-born workers is roughly $2 trillion. Immigrants keep our economy growing, bring diversity to our communities, and help the country going forward.
The best minds from around the world come to the U.S. to create pioneering technologies and make breakthrough discoveries. Only with the right attitude towards immigrants and with welcoming immigration policies the USA as a nation can attract and retain foreign talent.
It is our hope that president-elect Joe Biden will live up to his promises and will act to restore our immigration system. Biden’s immigration plan revolves around undoing the most damaging immigration policies implemented under Trump’s administration.
Biden’s key priorities include:
Restore the U.S. Asylum System
This will include reversing the inhumane policies that led to the separation of minor children from their families at the border and ending prolonged detention.
Restore qualifications for asylum. Past administration has implemented policies on who can seek asylum. Victims of gang and gender-based violence do not qualify for asylum—even if such violence isn’t prosecuted in their countries of origin. LGBTQ individuals have also faced increased challenges to seeking asylum in the United States.
Surge humanitarian resources to the border and fostering public-private initiatives. Humanitarian groups along the border will receive funding from the U.S. government to better serve migrants.
End the mismanagement of the asylum system, including the disastrous policy of “metering” — limiting the number of asylum applications a day at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, which has forced thousands of people seeking asylum to wait in Mexico for weeks before being able to apply.
Protect Dreamers and their families
The Obama-Biden Administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012 to protect “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. DACA provided young people with temporary work permits and protection from deportation. The Trump administration made the decision to terminate DACA.
Biden has promised to fully reinstate DACA upon taking office and to send a bill to Congress to make its protections permanent. Biden’s platform says “Dreamers and their parents should have a roadmap to citizenship through legislative immigration reform.”
Biden also plans to ensure Dreamers are eligible for federal student aid (loans, Pell grants) and are included in his proposals to provide access to community college without debt and invest in HBCU/Hispanic Serving Institution/Minority Serving Institutions, which will help Dreamers contribute even more to our economy.
Modernize the U.S. Visa System
Many recent changes have also made it more difficult for people to come to the U.S. lawfully—including people who wish to come here through family ties, as temporary workers, students, and through our high-skilled categories.
Biden hopes to work with Congress to reform our immigration system to include:
Increase the number of visas available in some categories and providing foreign workers with additional safeguards to prevent exploitation in the workplace.
Give agricultural workers a fast-tracked path to obtaining a green card and citizenship based on prior agricultural work history in the United States. The goal is to make it easier for U.S. employers to hire and retain both seasonal and permanent workers.
Create a roadmap to citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented people who have been living and paying taxes in the U.S. Biden will advocate for legislation that creates a clear roadmap to legal status and citizenship for unauthorized immigrants who register, are up-to-date on their taxes, and have passed a background check.
Reform the temporary visa system to establish a wage-based allocation process and establish enforcement mechanisms to ensure they are aligned with the labor market and not used to undermine wages.
Reform the family immigration system and allow for nonimmigrant visas for those who are stuck in backlogs. The current system is poorly designed with per-country caps that prevent applications from being approved in a timely fashion. That means approved applicants may wait decades to be reunited with their families. As president, Biden will support family-based immigration by preserving family unification as a foundation of our immigration system; by allowing any approved applicant to receive a temporary non-immigrant visa until the permanent visa is processed; and by supporting legislation that treats the spouse and children of green card holders as the immediate relatives they are, exempting them from caps, and allowing parents to bring their minor children with them at the time they immigrate.
Create a new visa category to allow cities and counties to petition for higher levels of immigrants to support their growth. Biden will support a program to allow any county or municipal executive of a large or midsize county or city to petition for additional immigrant visas to support the region’s economic development strategy, provided employers in those regions certify there are available jobs, and that there are no workers to fill them.
Reverse Trump’s public charge rule, which runs counter to our values as Americans and the history of our nation.
Rescind the travel and refugee bans, also referred to as “Muslim bans.”
Restore Enforcement Priorities
Biden will direct enforcement efforts toward threats to public safety and national security, while ensuring that individuals are treated with the due process to which they are entitled and their human rights are protected.
Ensure that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel abide by professional standards and are held accountable for inhumane treatment.
The history of the U.S. and our true values are in being a welcoming democratic nation where individuals could use their talents and where hard work and dedication can help us build a better life for ourselves, our families, and the society overall.
President-elect Joe Biden understands the values that immigrants bring to our communities and is committed to reform the U.S. immigration system for the better. However, it is up to all of us to create a welcoming environment and to accept and embrace diversity in our communities to be a nation of immigrants that our children would be proud to be a part of.
To evaluate your immigration case, talk to our attorneys.