President Biden signed 3 New Executive Orders targeting Immigration Reforms

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On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden has signed 3 more executive orders targeting immigration reform. It includes the creation of a task force to start a process to reunite families separated at the US-Mexico border by the federal government. Biden’s executive order on family reunification will seek to identify all minor children separated by their parents or legal guardians at the border under Donald Trump’s Zero Tolerance policy of prosecuting migrants for illegal entry at the southern border. However, it resulted in hundreds of separated families and imprisoned children in 2018. Point to be noted that at least 5,500 families were separated during the Trump administration’s 4-year term, although many of those families were reunited. The immigration authorities are still searching for more than 600 parents.

It is noteworthy that more than 1,400 others who were deported without their children have now spent years separated from their families in the countries they fled in the first place. A senior administration official said the order broadly defines zero tolerance to also include the Trump administration’s earlier test of the policy in El Paso, Texas, during which hundreds of other families were separated and deported. Another measure will review the underlying causes of migration from Central and South America into the US to confront the instability, violence, and economic insecurity. That executive order will also direct the Washington administration to work with foreign governments, international aid groups, and nonprofit organizations to provide protection and opportunities to asylum seekers and migrants closer to home.

The new executive order also directs a review of the Migrant Protection Protocol program, the so-called Remain in Mexico policy. The program allowed US border enforcement to send thousands of asylum seekers to potentially dangerous areas in Mexico while their claims are pending in US courts. It orders a series of actions to restore the nation’s asylum system by rescinding and directing agency review of a host of Trump Administration proclamations, rules, and guidance documents. These actions have efficiently closed the US border to asylum seekers in an attempt to deter would-be migrants. The US government is expected to keep in place an order from the CDC.