Biden's presidency begins as Trump's ended - with sharp focus on immigration

Within hours of being sworn in as president on Wednesday (US time), Joe Biden will announce an immigration bill that would open a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the United States unlawfully, a sharp contrast to the policies of outgoing Republican president Donald Trump.

Biden, a Democrat, will also sign 15 executive actions on Wednesday, incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. At least six of those will deal with immigration, according to a memo, making it a major focus of Biden's first day in office.

The actions include immediately lifting a travel ban on some, mostly Muslim-majority countries, immediately halting construction of the US-Mexico border wall and reversing a Trump order preventing migrants who are in the US illegally from being counted when US congressional voting districts are next redrawn.

Biden will also sign a memorandum directing the Department of Homeland Security and the US attorney general to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, which protects migrants who came to the country as children from deportation, and reverse a Trump executive order calling for stricter interior immigration enforcement.

Taken together, the actions show Biden is beginning his presidency with a sharp focus on immigration, just as Trump kept the issue at the centre of his policy agenda until the last days of his administration. In one of his few post-election public appearances, Trump visited a section of the US-Mexico border wall earlier this month.

Biden's decision to immediately roll back Trump's so-called Muslim ban - which targeted travellers and immigrants from several Muslim-majority nations - underscores his desire to restore US standing in the world. While Trump insisted the ban was introduced for security reasons, it was widely panned as discriminatory.

Road map to citizenship may face obstacles

Lifting the ban may be an easier task, however, than getting Congress to pass the ambitious legislative proposal Biden plans to submit on Wednesday. The proposal will lay out an eight-year road map to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country unlawfully, according to a fact sheet distributed to reporters by incoming White House officials on Tuesday.

Eligible immigrants who were in the country as of 1 January will be given a temporary status for five years, before being granted green cards for permanent residency, which is subject to certain requirements, such as background checks. They could then apply for citizenship after three more years, officials said.

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The wait time for legalisation would be shorter - three years - for some of the approximately 645,000 beneficiaries of the DACA programme and more than 400,000 immigrants living in the United States with Temporary Protected Status (TPS). It would also be expedited for some farmworkers.

Many DACA, TPS holders, and farmworkers would be immediately eligible to apply for green cards, officials said.

DACA and TPS currently offer eligibility for work permits and protection from deportation but no permanent legal status.

'Dreamers' part of Obama legacy

Biden was vice president when former president Barack Obama created DACA to protect young immigrants, often called "Dreamers," brought to the United States as children.

Trump tried to end DACA and phase out TPS for some countries but was stymied in the federal court. One case challenging DACA is still pending in Texas.

The legislative proposal raises annual per-country limits on legal immigration and calls for recapturing unused visas. It also authorises regional processing centres in Central America for registration for programmes like refugee resettlement.

If passed, it would be the largest legislative overhaul of the US immigration system since the administration of Republican president Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

For decades, Congress has failed to pass a major immigration reform bill. While Democrats effectively hold a majority in the US House of Representatives, the Senate will be divided 50-50 with incoming Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote. A lack of bipartisan support has hampered past efforts to overhaul the immigration system.

Passing an ambitious bill with Republican support could be a struggle, said Jessica Vaughan from the Washington-based Centre for Immigration Studies, which backed many of Trump's most restrictive policies. "I think this is more about symbolism," she said, referring to the immigration bill's goals.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio from Florida in a bilingual statement released on Tuesday called the bill a "non-starter" that included "a blanket amnesty for people who are here unlawfully".

Migrant caravans on the move

In the meantime, Biden faces a more immediate issue. Migrant caravans have been on the move in Central America, with some aiming to arrive at the southwest border after Biden's inauguration. On Monday, baton-wielding Guatemalan soldiers clashed with migrants, removing a large part of a caravan that included women and children.

Biden's actions on his first day in office do not include repealing a coronavirus pandemic-era order issued by the US Centres for Disease Control that allows border officials to expel almost all border crossers, according to fact sheets released by his team.

More than 380,000 people have been quickly sent to their home countries or pushed back to Mexico under the order, known as "Title 42" for the statute it falls under, since March 2020, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.

Incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on a call with reporters on Tuesday that it would be "unwise" for migrants to come to the border now because of limited capacity to process asylum claims.

"The situation at the border is one we intend to change, but it is going to take considerable time for us to be able to change it in an effective way," he said.

Here are some of the proposed reforms, according to people briefed on the plan and a fact sheet shared with reporters:

• Offers an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of people who were living in the United States unlawfully on 1 January, 2021. They would be eligible to apply for a green card after five years in a temporary status if they pass background checks and pay their taxes, and could then apply for citizenship three years later.
• Allows people with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protection, a group known as "Dreamers", who were brought to the United States illegally as children, farmworkers and people with Temporary Protected Status to immediately apply for a green card if they meet specific requirements. They would have a three-year path to citizenship.
• Permits certain immigrants who were deported during the Trump administration and had previously lived in the United States for three years to return to reunite with family or for other humanitarian reasons.
• Raises annual per-country limits on family-based immigration and eliminates them for employment visas.
• Exempts spouses and children of green card holders from employment-based immigration quotas, expanding the number of green cards available to employment-based immigrants.
• Scraps multi-year bars to re-entry for certain people who lived in the United States illegally and then left.
• Clears family-based and employment-based visa backlogs.
• Provides work permits to dependents of H-1B visa holders.
• Authorises regional processing centres in Central America to register and process people for refugee resettlement and other legal migration programmes.
• Authorises funding for legal counsel for vulnerable populations of migrants, such as children.
• Increases the number of immigration judges working in the court system.
• Eliminates the one-year filing deadline for asylum applications.
• Changes the word "alien" to "noncitizen" in US immigration laws.

- Reuters