One Can Dream: What a President Joe Biden's Immigration Plan Would Look Like
The presumed democratic candidate for president Joe Biden released his Immigration plan for "Securing our Values as a Nation of Immigrants". In order to better understand how his approach would be vastly different than the current administration's priorities, the following are Joe Biden's positions in the event he was elected President in November.
Joe Biden believes the immigrants bring tremendous economic, cultural, and social value to the communities. Even in cities walloped by the loss of manufacturing jobs, immigrants are vital for entrepreneurship and population growth. For that reason, his plans include modernizing America’s Immigration System by delivering a legislative immigration reform to ensure that the U.S. remains open and welcoming to people from every part of the world.
Modernize America’s immigration system
Welcome immigrants in our communities
Reassert America’s commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees
Tackle the root causes of irregular migration
Implement effective border screening
In the first 100 days, a Biden Administration will take the following actions:
DACA
Biden championed the creation and expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program, and the Central American Minors program. He plans to end the prosecution of parents for minor immigration violations and prioritize the reunification of any children still separated from their families. Further, Biden will also ensure Dreamers are eligible for federal student aid (loans, Pell grants) and are included in his proposals to provide community college access.
Asylum Program
The plan is to restore the asylum laws to be more effective in protecting people fleeing persecution and who cannot return home safely. By doing this, he would reverse the restriction on asylum in the U.S., including canceling restrictions on anyone traveling through Mexico or Guatemala. He would be more flexible on victims of the gang, domestic violence, and asylum seekers of misdemeanor illegal entry.
End Prolonged Detention
The idea is to reinvest in a case management program and alternatives to detention that support migrants as they navigate their legal obligations to ensure the immigrant attends all required immigration appointments. These programs also enable migrants to live in dignity and safety, such as having doctor visits, social services, and school enrollment for children, while awaiting their court hearings.
Public Charge Rule
By reversing the public charge rules, Biden would allow immigrants to receive a visa or gain permanent residency contingent on their use of government services such as SNAP benefits or Medicaid, their household income, and other discriminatory criteria.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Ensure that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel abide by professional standards by increasing resources for training, demand transparency, and independent oversight over ICE and CBP’s activities. Under a Biden Administration, there will be responsible, Senate-confirmed professionals leading these agencies, and they will answer directly to the president.
Naturalization
The Biden Administration pretends to streamline and improve the naturalization process to make it more accessible to qualified green card holders by prioritizing the adjudication work stream and ensuring applications are processed quickly, and rejecting the imposition of unreasonable fees.
Temporary Visa
The candidate plans to work with Congress to first reform temporary visas 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. Then, Biden will support expanding the number of high-skilled visas and eliminating the limits on employment-based visas by country, which create unacceptably long backlogs.
Work Visas
Biden will increase the number of visas offered for permanent, work-based immigration based on macroeconomic conditions and reform the visa program for temporary workers in select industries or for workers who only seek to be in the U.S. for a short time.
New Vista Category
Creates a new visa category to allow cities and counties to petition for higher levels of immigrants to support their growth. As president, Biden will support a program to allow any county or municipal executive of a large or midsize county or city to petition additional immigrant visas. Holders of these visas would be required to work and reside in the city or county they petitioned and would be subject to the same certification protections as other employment-based immigrants.
Implement Effective Border Screening
By investing in better technology with privacy protections at the border, improve cross-agency collaboration combining multiple federal agencies, and working with Mexico and Canada leaders as partners, not as adversaries.
Border Humanitarian Resources
Biden believes that the border needs a humanitarian and better network of organizations, such as faith-based shelters, non-governmental aid organizations, legal non-profits, and refugee assistance agencies. Biden will dramatically increase U.S. government resources to support migrants awaiting assessment of their asylum claims and to the organizations providing for their needs.
It is clear that Trump and Biden are taking drastically different paths when it comes to immigration policy for 2021. Biden’s plan acknowledges how enforcement measures have harmed the immigrant community and that modernizing the U.S. system will help everyone involved. If he wins, we will likely see a new era in U.S. Immigration policy along with a significant reversal of the current anti-immigration federal government.
If you have any questions regarding your immigration status, please contact our office. We are happy to provide free initial consultations for any immigration legal assistance.
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The Law Office of Nicholas J. Mireles is an experienced Los Angeles based U.S. Immigration law firm that has been practicing immigration law since 2013. Our background makes us uniquely well suited to help you with any issue relating to your immigration status.
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** You can find his full Immigration Plan at https://joebiden.com/immigration/
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