{"id":7246,"date":"2022-02-15T12:56:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T12:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7246"},"modified":"2022-02-15T12:56:45","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T12:56:45","slug":"one-year-into-his-presidency-joe-bidens-immigration-policy-hasnt-made-anyone-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7246","title":{"rendered":"One Year Into His Presidency, Joe Biden’s Immigration Policy Hasn’t Made Anyone Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“On his first day in the presidency, Biden began to tackle some of the harsh immigration measures imposed by Trump. He lifted Trump’s so-called Muslim ban<\/a>, which prevented citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from coming to the U.S. He signed<\/a> an executive order halting construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. And he sent the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021<\/a> to Congress. Among other things, that bill set out to create a path to citizenship for undocumented people, clear backlogs in the family-based immigration system, and improve immigration courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, many of those early wins\u2014and supposed reversals of Trump’s policies\u2014came with asterisks. Biden was right to rescind Trump’s “Muslim ban,” but nearly all families affected by the policy remained separated<\/a> because of visa application backlogs. He was right to halt construction of the border wall (which was never going to work<\/a>), but his administration failed to stop Trump’s land grab lawsuits and the federal government continued<\/a> to seize private property along the U.S.-Mexico border through eminent domain. That ambitious immigration bill has gone nowhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since taking office, Biden has cherry-picked<\/a> which of Trump’s most controversial policies he’ll keep and which he’ll discard. The ones he’s kept are cruel, counterproductive, and are failing to please either side of the political aisle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key among them is Title 42<\/a>, which critics say violates<\/a> longstanding U.S. asylum law. The policy was first imposed by the Trump administration and allows Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to expel migrants on public health grounds. Deprived of the opportunity to present their cases for asylum, migrants are very often returned to dangerous communities and countries. Biden has kept Title 42 in place, even though it was the brainchild of notoriously anti-immigration Trump adviser Stephen Miller. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials have questioned<\/a> its efficacy as a COVID-19 mitigation measure from the very beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBP expelled<\/a> over 1 million people under Title 42 in 2021, with over 7,000 migrants getting kidnapped and attacked by cartels and Mexican authorities post-expulsion since Inauguration Day. The Biden administration has also used Title 42 to deport thousands of Haitians to Haiti, even though many of the deportees hadn’t lived in Haiti for years and were actually coming<\/a> from South America. Some Biden appointees have suggested<\/a> that the president’s continuation of Title 42 “is largely based on optics\u2014that it’s staying in place because of concerns that ending it will fuel perceptions of a chaotic border.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Biden’s critics falsely claim that the Southern border is open. It’s true that CBP reported<\/a> a 21-year high of 1.66 million migrant encounters at the border in fiscal year 2021. The majority\u201461 percent<\/a>\u2014of those apprehensions resulted<\/a> in Title 42 expulsions, and the figure fails to account for repeat crossings. “Perversely, continuing this Trump policy has also given ammunition to the hard-right nativists, because it has the unintended consequence of inflating the count of U.S. border crossings,” writes<\/a> The Washington Post<\/em>‘s Catherine Rampell. Over one-quarter of encountered individuals were apprehended multiple times by CBP, Rampell notes<\/a>\u2014”nearly quadruple the share in 2019.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the while, inefficiency has plagued day-to-day aspects of the U.S. immigration system. Two years into the pandemic, 60 percent of U.S. embassies and consulates are still partially or completely closed<\/a> for visa processing. Nearly 440,000 immigrant visa applicants whose cases are “documentarily complete<\/a>” are still waiting<\/a> for visa appointments (the State Department scheduled just 26,605 appointments for this month). The nation’s refugee intake hit a record low<\/a> in fiscal year 2021 and our numbers aren’t on pace to be any better in 2022. Legal immigration collapsed under Trump; it hasn’t rebounded<\/a> under Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that said, it would be unfair to say that Biden’s immigration policy has been a complete failure. The administration evacuated<\/a> a staggering number of Afghans after their country fell to the Taliban in August. Visa processing<\/a> has been imperfect<\/a> and many vulnerable people are still trapped<\/a> in Afghanistan, but the Biden administration smartly introduced<\/a> a private refugee sponsorship program that allows U.S. citizens to help support and resettle evacuated Afghans. Biden has rescinded<\/a> some Trump-era rules that needlessly slowed down visa and work permit processing, and recently added<\/a> 20,000 visas to this fiscal year’s cap for the nonimmigrant nonagricultural worker H-2B visa. The administration restarted<\/a> the Central American Minors program, which allows at-risk children from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to come to the U.S. as refugees.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
One Year Into His Presidency, Joe Biden’s Immigration Policy Hasn’t Made Anyone Happy<\/a><\/blockquote>