WASHINGTON | Joe Biden on Tuesday pledged to work to erase “a moral and national shame” inherited from his predecessor, Donald Trump: the separation of thousands of migrant families on the southern border of the United States in 2018, some of whom did not still not met.
The Democratic president has signed three decrees on immigration, one of which provides for the establishment of a working group to identify and locate the approximately 600 children who remain separated from their parents.
“I am not making a new law, I am eliminating bad policies,” he said, initialing the documents in the Oval Office. “The last administration literally snatched children from the arms of their families […] no plan of any kind to bring them together ”later, he denounced.
“America is more secure, strong and prosperous with a healthy, rational and humane migratory system,” said Joe Biden, who also ordered to review all the obstacles to legal immigration and integration posed by the Republican administration over the past four years.
The implementation of these directives will fall to Alejandro Mayorkas, who was confirmed on Tuesday by the Senate as Minister of Homeland Security of the United States.
This son of Cuban refugees, born in Havana 61 years ago and arrived as a baby on American soil, is the first Hispanic to take the head of this sprawling ministry which oversees, in particular, the migration policy of the United States.
His first mission will be to correct the evils caused by the so-called “zero tolerance” policy at the border, adopted by Donald Trump’s administration in the spring of 2018. Faced with the outcry, including from his own camp, the Republican billionaire was quickly there renounced, but hundreds of children never found their parents.
The task force, led by Mr. Mayorkas, will be tasked with identifying them and proposing solutions to reunite families, which could go through authorizations to return to the United States for expelled parents or the issuance of residence cards. for those who live without papers.
“Charge for society”
Joe Biden also signed a decree on the countries of origin of migrants. In addition to the return of economic aid, it aims to reopen legal immigration channels, in particular by improving access to visas for citizens of Central American countries, and to overhaul the asylum system.
“International cooperation is essential to guarantee a secure, orderly and humane migration process,” said US foreign minister Antony Blinken in a statement, assuring that the United States would work with Central America to “guarantee unity families”.
As for the third decree, it aims to promote the integration of migrants legally settled in the United States. It plans to “make naturalization more accessible to the nine million people eligible for US citizenship,” according to senior officials.
This objective involves in particular a review of the so-called “burden for society” rule created in August 2019 to refuse the green card or American citizenship to migrants receiving social assistance, for example subsidized care or a housing allowance.
From his first day in the White House, the president had already sent pledges to the left wing of the Democratic Party, which is waiting for a 180-degree turn on immigration, after four years spent locking down state borders. United.
In particular, he tackled two flagship measures of his predecessor: the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico, which Joe Biden suspended, and the ban on entry onto American soil for nationals of the majority of countries. Muslims, which the Democrat lifted.
He also sent a bill to Congress that could result in the regularization of millions of undocumented migrants in the United States. Its adoption, however, will require convincing several elected Republican officials, which seems difficult.
Setting the tone for the contests to come, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham regretted the efforts made by Joe Biden to “suppress part of the advances obtained by Donald Trump against illegal immigration”. According to him, his measures “are recipes for disaster and will create an influx to the border.”
“Now is not the time to come to the United States,” yet White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told potential immigration candidates. “The road remains dangerous”, she justified. “And we still need time to put in place a migration process that treats people humanely.”