By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Joe Biden begins his tenure today as United States president with a focus on several priorities, among them, the economy, health care, foreign diplomacy, justice reform, and an immigration bill on citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants.
The immigration bill, which also aims to address the root cause of migration from countries in Central America and improve the use of technology at the border, is expected to be sent to Congress today, a source told CNN.
Biden promised during the campaign that he would make immigration reform a priority as president, a move that runs directly counter to the anti-immigration rhetoric and action that defined Donald Trump’s four years in office.
Multi-layered pathways to citizenship
Biden also received pressure from immigration groups throughout the campaign, many of whom worried that the deportation that happened during the Barack Obama presidency would continue in the Biden administration.
Per CNN, the central tenet of the plan is the pathway to citizenship, which would allow certain undocumented immigrants to achieve citizenship within eight years.
The broadcaster quoted the source as saying that the plan would give certain immigrants temporary status for five years, allow them to apply for green cards after that time and once they have met certain criteria, then allow them to apply for citizenship three years later.
For recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) – so-called Dreamers who were protected under a program first started by Obama – the pathway would be streamlined, allowing them to apply for a green card immediately.
Vice President Kamala Harris recently described the immigration plan in an interview with Univision.
“It will be about creating a pathway for people to earn citizenship. We’re going to reduce the time from what is now has been currently 13 years to eight years. We are going to expand protections for Dreamers and DACA recipients,” she said.
“These are some of the things that we’re going to do on our immigration bill. And we believe it is a smarter and a more humane way of approaching immigration.”
Working with Congress
The plan, first reported by the Washington Post, would also require immigrants to have been in the US by the start of 2021, a decision made to stop any mass migration to the US-Mexico border.
Trump made immigration one of the central tenets of his presidential bid, pledging to build a wall along the US-Mexico border as a way to curb undocumented immigrants from coming in.
While some of the wall has been built, Trump’s actions have failed to live up to his words and he left office with only a handful of immigration accomplishments to tout.
The likelihood of a sweeping immigration bill passing Congress is an open question. Previous attempts, like the concerted pushed to pass an immigration bill in 2013, failed, and the Republican Party now includes more immigration hardliners after four years under Trump.
“I would be privileged to work with Congress to pass immigration reform legislation that provides that path and provides a permanent solution to what is clearly a broken system,” Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, told senators on Tuesday.
This immigration plan will not be Biden’s only action taken on the issue at the outset of his administration.
Incoming Chief of Staff Ron Klain wrote in a memo over the weekend that Biden will begin the process of reunifying the families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border within his first 10 days in office.
Sources familiar with Biden’s plans anticipate he will also issue an executive order aimed at halting the construction of Trump’s border wall and reinstating the DACA program.
Concern about a new wave of immigrants
Biden will also sign dozens of executive orders, according to a memo from Klain, including rescinding the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries.
But, CNN adds, while Biden has pledged to take a more humane approach to those arriving at the US southern border, incoming officials have been publicly warning migrants that restrictive policies put in place under Trump will take time to roll back – a point Biden has recognised.
“The last thing we need is to say we’re going to stop immediately the – you know – the access to asylum the way it’s being run now and end up with 2 million people on our border. It’s a matter of setting up the guardrail so we can move in the direction,” Biden said last month.
But behind the scenes, plans have been set in motion to prepare for new arrivals, which have been gradually ticking up since last year and present an immediate challenge to the new administration as it sets up its own immigration policies.
The Department of Homeland Security has been putting contingency plans in place, in anticipation of an increase in migrants at the southern border as a result of deteriorating conditions in Latin America and a perceived relaxation of enforcement, and relaying those plans to transition officials, according to a senior DHS official.
Plans include, for example, the use of soft-sided facilities that take into account Covid-19 precautions.
Non-governmental organisations and the Biden transition engaged in regular planning conversations that primarily focused on them connecting with direct service providers at ports entry to start to get to a more nuanced perspective on processing and regional differences, according to two sources familiar with discussions.
The long-term plan is to set in motion a regional strategy that addresses root causes and expands pathways for migration.
Caravans from Central America
According to Guatemala’s official immigration agency, an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 US-bound migrants have crossed into Guatemala from Honduras since January 15.
The coronavirus pandemic has taken a dramatic toll on Latin America, where Covid-19 cases and deaths have soared and economies projected to grow have been decimated.
The region was also hit with two devastating hurricanes. The decline in economic growth in 2020, according to the Congressional Research Service, is expected to worsen income inequality and poverty in the region.
Caravans, as they’ve largely become known, are intended in part to provide safety in numbers as migrants embark on the dangerous journey north. The Trump administration seized on caravans to back up controversial and restrictive policies that largely sealed off the US, but they’re only one means of migration.
“It gets outsized attention because it’s a lot of people. They do it for safety, they do it for community …. It doesn’t necessarily mean they have a better chance of getting in,” said Theresa Brown, director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
“We knew for a while there was pent up demand to come to the United States,” Brown added, citing conditions in Latin America.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday the country is closely watching developments of a migrants’ caravan moving towards the US from Central America, adding that he’s talking with Central American and US government officials, including the Biden administration.
Obrador said his team is “in communication with the government of the United States, the current officials and those who are coming through in the new government” around the caravans’ issue.
Restoring dignity to US immigration system
According to CNN, the Trump administration took an aggressive posture on the US-Mexico border that resulted in thousands of migrants waiting along on the southern border for their US immigration court date and, during the coronavirus pandemic, the swift removal of migrants, including children.
The new administration has pledged to undo policies that, immigrant advocates argued, put migrants in harm’s way.
Klain underscored Biden’s commitment to restoring “dignity to our immigration system and our border policies, and start the difficult but critical work of reuniting families separated at the border,” out of the gate in a memo to staff over the weekend.
As that happens, the administration will also have to address ongoing migration.
“That’s going to be the challenge with this administration. They’re going to have to deal with this as they plan for what they want it to look like,” Brown said.