When President Donald Trump won the election in 2016, he did so largely with the issue of signing immigration, and in four years he managed to make far-reaching changes to the country’s asylum system and along the border.
Now that he has been voted out of office, immigration experts and advocates say his actions, including political changes at an “unprecedented” pace, will take some time for a new administration to be revoked in the midst of an ongoing epidemic.
“He is the only president not only in modern history to have been elected on the basis of his immigration policy platform,” Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow at the Institute for Migration Policy, told NBC News. – And he kept his promise. He did not leave after he was elected. This is a huge difference from any previous administration.
President-elect Joe Biden has said he will withdraw a wide range of these changes on his first 100 days in office, but experts say it may take much longer for them to see the results of these changes.
Three people involved in developing Biden’s immigration platform told NBC News that change is struggling hard and may not happen all at once.
On Tuesday, Biden announced that he would recommend Alejandro Mayorkast to his secretary of national security, the first Latin and the first immigrant to head the department.
According to Chishti, Trump began his administration by issuing enforcement orders such as a travel ban and, by the end of his term, mostly abolished the country’s asylum system. Overall, the institute believes Trump has implemented more than 400 enforcement actions to change the immigration system at a “never-before-seen” pace.
According to Chishti, one of the easiest things to do could be to restore and extend protection under the Obama-era deferred action for childhood arrivals program, which protects young immigrants brought into the country as children but has no legal status.
Another policy that Biden could withdraw more quickly is the return of the Obama administration to immigration enforcement guidelines related to serious criminals or threats to national security, he said.
Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Human Rights Border Network, said one of the policies that would be more complicated to withdraw was Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocol, also known as “Stay in Mexico,” which sent back tens of thousands of asylum seekers. Wait for their cases in Mexico. Completing the policy does not answer the question of what to do with those who are still waiting across the border, and how to bring them back and when, which can be a time-consuming process, Garcia said.
“So the end doesn’t mean we’re able to bring everyone back right now, and I’m very worried,” he said. – How are we going to handle it?
Another time-consuming political change is the reunification of hundreds of families that are still splitting up as a result of Trump’s controversial family separation policy, which has separated thousands of families at the border, he said.
As reported by NBC News, lawyers tasked with locating migrant parents from their children by the Trump administration have not yet found parents for the 666 children of the children.
“We need to bring these families together,” he said.
According to Chishti, reversing the rules on public charges in the Trump administration is also likely to take some time. The rule, which makes it difficult for immigrants to obtain some legal status if they are relieved of state aid, is currently being challenged by the courts, he said.
“If it took Trump a year to get into his place, why would it take less time for Biden to unwind?” he said. – We all ask this question.
He said Biden also faced the deterrent and important task of establishing a fair and effective asylum system after Trump fundamentally put an end to intertwined political changes, including agreements with various nations, including Mexico and Central American countries.
“Did you build a beautiful wall from the sea to the shining sea? It didn’t happen, but on the other hand, he could argue he was able to build a wall without using bricks and mortar in the form of asylum changes, ”he said. “The changes in our asylum system have been so profound that they have almost deceived asylum seekers entering the United States.”
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According to Chishti, one of the longest-term and potentially most difficult changes could be an immigration reform package that gives status to undocumented immigrants, especially in a potentially divided Congress where such proposals have historically failed.
“I think the hardest to implement is not only because of the epidemic, but also because of the history of immigration reform in a divided government,” he said.
According to Garcia, while political change takes time, changing the narrative and the image projected by America is also critical.
“What I think about shaping national policies is not just politics, but first a narrative that shapes politics,” he said.
“Potential change is already a relief in border communities and families.” – He told.
