Immigration reform took center stage Tuesday as President Biden focused on that part of his agenda by signing several executive orders. They are aimed at ending and reviewing certain Trump administration policies.
The President’s top immigration priority, highlighted during his campaign, is reuniting immigrant families separated under the previous administration’s zero-tolerance policy.
One executive order creates a task force that will identify separated children in the U.S, and find their parents spread across Latin America where they were likely deported.
The ACLU estimates there are some 600 parentless children in the U.S.
Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, calls it a step in the right direction.
“I think it’s good for the U.S. government to try and keep those families together,” Daly said. “I was a foster child. I know what it means to be separated from your family. That’s a scary time for a child.”
Another executive order directs Homeland Security to review the Trump “remain in Mexico” policy. It restricts those seeking asylum from crossing the border while they wait for cases to be decided. On Monday, the White House asked the Supreme Court to cancel upcoming arguments on the legality of the program arguing it leaves asylum seekers in potential danger.
Sister Norma Pimetel is with Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
“And so, yes, it’s important to keep our country safe, to know who enters our country,” Pimetel said. “But we also must not lose our humanity in the process of doing that.”
The Biden administration is proposing sweeping immigration reform that would provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants and dreamers, those brought to the U.S. illegally as children. The administration is moving carefully, however, so it doesn’t encourage any mass migration in these COVID times. That would flood borders where some families have been waiting a year or more to enter the country.
“And so, it’s sad to see their anguish and at the same time trying to encourage them to have patience and to be calm and not to – to lose heart, you know,” Pimetel said. “Because I’m hopeful for them and maybe with, I know the new administration is offering possibilities for how things can move forward in their favor.”
“And I hope we as an American nation can actually secure the borders and do the things to put people in line who want to get here,” Daly said.
Reversing policies won’t come easy for the Biden administration. Many were enacted through regulations under the previous administration and will likely take months to change them.
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