The president of the United States, Joe Biden, will create a task force to finish reunifying the families of migrants who were separated at the border with Mexico during the Donald Trump Administration, in an attempt to reverse one of the most controversial policies of the previous Government.
Trump applied a zero tolerance policy on the southern border that meant between July 2017 and June 2018 the separation of at least 5,500 children from his parents. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) maintains that at least 1,000 of these families would remain separated.
Biden, who promised to reform the immigration system as a whole, will sign a series of decrees on Tuesday that will make family reunification a “priority.” Thus, he will repeal the order promulgated by Trump that justifies the separation of children and parents and will create a working group that will speak with both federal agencies and with affected families, according to the White House.
The Biden Administration believes that, in the previous stage, those fleeing violence were systematically “penalized” and a series of policies were adopted that only contributed “to chaos, cruelty and confusion,” especially on the border with Mexico. , where Trump advocated building a wall.
Thus, although it promises to stop the “irregular” entry of migrants, the new Government also aspires to achieve “migration, legal and orderly”, for which it will try to tackle the underlying causes of migration in the countries of origin, improve the protection that they are being brought “closer to home” and will work to make “legal paths” for Central American refugees and asylum seekers.
On the other hand, and in order for the United States to continue being a “land of opportunities”, the Government also wants to promote “the integration of the new Americans” and for the system to function in a “fair and efficient” manner. for example, that family sponsors do not have to return funds to the Administration if their relatives receive public aid and “optimize” the process to receive citizenship.
Biden has made immigration reform one of his great promises both in the campaign and already in the White House, as he tried to demonstrate with first orders that stopped deportations or opened the door to the nationalization of eleven million undocumented immigrants.