US Immigration policies are an integral part of the American administrative system. While Trump’s restrictive immigration policy was certainly a blow to the US’ image as the messiah of the liberal world order, President Joe Biden’s promises have not completely materialised or succeeded in providing relief to immigrants waiting at borders or awaiting legal statuses.
The ban on refugees, separation of children from their families at the borders, a stricter vetting system, Muslim ban, an all time low cap of 15,000 and policies like Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) placed American immigration policies under scrutiny. Hence, when Biden was elected President, reinstating said policies to the Obama era and reversing the international damage caused under Trump’s presidency was theoretically high up on his agenda. Arguably, President Biden had a rather tedious term ahead of him, given that there are several areas that need reformation. While the Biden administration promised to reverse Trump’s policies, they have also been apprehensive of doing so, apparently because of their enormous nature. For instance, the administration has justified its failure to resettle 125,000 refugees as being a consequence of the pandemic and the ensuing humanitarian crisis, among other things.
Vedant Patel, a White House spokesman, said, “We all agree that our immigration system is outdated and in bad need of reform.” This brings out a concerning issue with the build of the US immigration system itself. While Biden’s immigration policies are not the same as Trump’s, domestic quarrels within the US have made it difficult for the possibility of effective policy reformation. While immigrants, activists and lawyers are frustrated with the lack of implementation and fulfillment of Biden’s promises, Republicans are constantly questioning Biden’s insufficient efforts to tackle the issue of rising illegal migrants at the southern border.
In case of Trump’s MPP or ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy for instance, the Biden administration attempted to put an end to this policy in 2021; however, after a lawsuit against Biden an injunction was issued by the Texas Court on grounds of it being an insufficiently justified decision. While it would appear that putting a stop to such legislation would be an obvious step, the institutional and administrative constraints created hindrances. It also brought into the limelight the ingrained position of the conservatives on immigration. It was only in June 2022 that the Supreme Court gave a narrow victory to the Biden administration with a 5 – 4 decision.
Immigration Backlog reaches Eight Million
Additionally, according to Mimi Tsankov, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, the backlog at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services has crossed 8 million cases which has further stalled the changes proposed by Biden.
While Biden has made progress in terms of increasing the cap on immigrants and issuing more visas and permits, an area that urgently needs major improvement is in the administration’s approach towards refugees. The resettlement of refugees does not serve American political interests. This is made evident by Vice President Harris’ trip to Mexico and Guatemala in 2021 wherein she urged them not to migrate, to save themselves harrowing experiences at the border. She further clarified that the US will work on strengthening its borders, and that it is the root causes of immigration that need be tackled first. Hence, while Biden’s policy on refugees rather impressively differs on paper from Trump’s, it does not promise real change yet. The refugee agenda is merely a tool for Biden to appease the public by shifting blame on to the Trump administration, while citing security concerns and the pandemic as reasons to conveniently maintain the discriminatory nature of American immigration laws.
Ultimately, while Biden and Trump differ in their approach towards immigration, Biden has not achieved all that he aims to, and immigrants continue to be at the mercy of his administration. This has placed Biden under the radar of critics as he continues to tackle the left and the right, whilst dealing with inherent flaws in the American immigration system.
