From day one as president, Joe Biden steered U.S. immigration policy away from the xenophobic and harsh direction charted by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
“A very important marker is just the shift in tone and rhetoric. We’re no longer talking about people as if they are animals or insects” said Valeria Gomez, the William R. Davis teaching fellow at the University of Connecticut’s Asylum and Human Rights Clinic. “I think we can never go back to that.”
Gomez made the observation during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Law, Life & Culture With Betsy Kim.” She discussed the president’s moves on immigration along with Meghann LaFountain, chair of the Connecticut Chapter of the American Lawyers Immigration Association (AILA). (Watch the episode above.)
The president signed three executive orders last week. The first creates a task force to reunite migrant families torn apart by the Trump “Zero Tolerance” policy. During 2017 and 2018, the U.S. government separated approximately 5,500 children from their parents at the Mexican border. Now, the parents of more than 600 children cannot be located. Many parents were relocated in the U.S. while others were deported. Some possibly have gone into hiding, after being returned to the country they fled fearing for their lives. Meanwhile, immigration officials sent children to live with relatives, family friends, shelters and foster care across the country.
Meghann LaFountain added that some of the individuals may have had cell phones from other countries that don’t operate in the U.S. or may have had their property collected but not returned.
“Finding where the other person ended could be very, very challenging,” she said. “You don’t know where the person was sent. You have no way to contact them. I think that will be the biggest challenge of the administration’s task force.”
“I’m really hoping with every ounce of me that this is not an egg we can’t unscramble,” said Gomez. Many of the children would have the right to seek asylum and safety in the U.S., she stated. If their parents were deported, sending the children to their home countries would not be appropriate. Some parents waived their opportunity to seek asylum, hoping to have their children returned.
President Biden’s second executive order plans a review of the root causes of migration and the asylum process. The Department of Homeland Security will end or revise the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), known as the “Remain in Mexico” program. This policy has forced roughly 60,000 asylum seekers to live in squalid and dangerous, makeshift camps in Mexican border towns, while they await U.S. immigration court hearings.
The third executive order calls for a comprehensive review of the Trump administration’s immigration policies and creates a task force to promote immigrant integration and inclusion.
LaFountain and Gomez noted, in the past Trump repeatedly stoked fear and resentment of immigrants. Even in announcing his first presidential run on June 16, 2015, he described in racist terms, migrants coming from Mexico. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” he infamously stated.
LaFountain underscored how Trump failed to talk about the contributions immigrants bring to communities. “He was never honest about the statistics, about how many people coming in aren’t criminals,” she said. (Studies, such as those conducted by Pew Research Center and the libertarian Cato Institute, indicate that the overall crime rates for first-generation immigrants, both undocumented and those in the country legally, are substantially lower than for native-born Americans.)
To counter rising racism, the two lawyers suggested increasing historical, legal and cultural education. With greater familiarity, people gain more comfort and feel less fear, reducing the perception of immigrants as “others.”
In addressing the anger toward immigrants, Gomez pointed to other causes of economic frustrations. “The culprit isn’t necessarily a newcomer, as much as it is a system that has been in place for a really long time that’s keeping people in the positions they are in,” she said.
In other actions, Biden ended what was widely called the “Muslim Ban.” This Trump executive order had prevented people from mostly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. Biden also issued a memo to strengthen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The president increased the cap on refugees from 15,000 to 125,000 for the fiscal year 2021. He suspended construction of the US-Mexico border wall and placed a 100-day freeze on deportations. Biden also sent a comprehensive immigration bill, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, to Congress. If passed into law, it could provide a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker’s “Welcoming City” executive order extended protections for undocumented immigrants in July 2020. Responding to the city’s commitment to diversity, WNHH Radio — 103. 5 FM conducted an in-depth interview with Gomez and LaFountain on the president’s immigration agenda. The discussion also covers DACA, more about the proposed citizenship bill and ways to counter anti-immigration sentiments.
