Tracking President Biden's Immigration Policy: Week of Feb 1, 2021
The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
EXECUTIVE ACTION
President Biden issued several executive orders on Tuesday aimed at reinforcing the U.S. immigration system. In addition to establishing a family reunification task force and implementing a three-part plan for safe and lawful migration across the southern border, the President also directed all agencies to conduct a review of regulations and policies that have created barriers within the legal immigration system, including the controversial public charge rule put into effect last year.
PERSONNEL CHANGES
The Senate confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas as Secretary of Homeland Security on Tuesday in a 56 to 34 vote. Born in Havana, Cuba, Mayorkas is the first immigrant and Latino to lead the agency in its 18-year history. You can read more about Secretary Mayorkas’s career in last week’s blog post. Also sworn in this week was Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who was confirmed on Tuesday by a vote of 86 to 13. The former mayor of South Bend, IN and Navy veteran is the first openly gay Cabinet member in United States history, as well as the youngest person to lead the department at 39 years old.
THE DREAM ACT
On Thursday, Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced The Dream Act of 2021 in Congress. The bipartisan bill would provide a path to citizenship for certain undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Senator Durbin introduced the first version of the Development, Relief, and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act in 2001 and has devoted the last twenty years of his career to the bill. At least ten versions have been introduced to Congress, but despite bipartisan support, none have been signed into law. In 2010, the bill fell just five votes short of the sixty necessary to proceed in the Senate.
President Obama implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy in 2012, citing Congress’ failure to pass the Dream Act bill as a substantial driver of his decision. However, the policy was always meant to be a temporary measure in place until a permanent legislative solution was passed. The Trump administration attempted to repeal the program in 2017, a move that paused the acceptance of all new DACA applications for several years. In June of 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration had failed to provide a reasonable explanation for its decision as required by the Administrative Procedures Act and ordered the government to resume processing DACA applications. President Biden reinstated the DACA policy in full on his first day in office.