W. Washington – President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has said one of his first priorities will be to stick to his predecessor’s restricted immigration policies. To do that, he may have to revisit the Department of Homeland Security, which has leaned towards President Trump’s wishes over the past four years.
The department, created after the September 11, 2001 attacks, has helped implement some of Mr. Trump’s divisive policies, such as separating families on the border, banning travel from Muslim-majority countries, and building a border wall. When the president tried to rebuke his campaign around law and order this year, homeland security leaders deployed strategic officers to protect the statues and confront opponents, rallying for that purpose.
Critics of the department called for a systemic change in the agency, or its demolition, after agents videotaped protesters entering unarmed vans on the streets of Portland, Rey. But the incoming administration is intended to keep the department intact.
Still, change is coming.
Interviews with 16 current and former Homeland Security officials and advisers involved in Mr. Biden’s transition and a review of their platforms, an agenda that aims to incorporate climate change into the department’s policy, fill vacancies and neglect Mr. Trump’s responsibilities, disaster response and cyber salute. Including.
But reversing Mr. Trump’s immigration policies will initially dominate.
Many of the Trump administration’s policies cannot be reversed immediately, and Mr. Biden is likely to face an early test if he moves to the southwest border with the rest of Mr. Trump’s departure.
Politically, it may be crowded, balancing Democrats’ demands for more noble immigration policies, such as the concerns of moderates fearing issues, costing the party dearly in this month’s House and Senate elections. When Mr. Trump won the 2016 election, he campaigned on a tough immigration agenda, and the policies have been a central appeal to many who support Mr. Trump.
“If it looks like they’re just kicking a can on the road, people get very angry,” said Marissa Franco, executive director of the Litino civil rights organization, which served on the task force that issued the recommendations. . Biden campaign.
Mr. Trump has measured the success of his homeland security secretaries primarily on the progress of his border wall and the monthly total arrests made by his border agents.
The 23-member transition team announced to Mr Biden last week indicated they would help with other responsibilities in the scattered department. The team includes at least four former officers with citizenship and immigration services, a legal immigration agency that has been embroiled in economic conflict. The team’s leader, Jadr Jeddah, was the agency’s chief adviser to President Barack Obama and frequently criticized Mr. Trump’s policies.
The group also includes several Obama administration officials who focused on cyber security, emergency response and transportation security. Mr. Trump had a team of only four transition advisers to protect his homeland.
“If you look at what’s going on in the world right now, in addition to border security and TSA airline issues, you have an epidemic and an unprecedented hurricane season,” said Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security chaired by President George W. Bush. For transport security administration. Mr Biden said he would take a “broader, more strategic approach”.
Biden’s official transition team, a team mostly made up of volunteers, has been working on that approach for weeks. Volunteers, including Cecilia Moose, Mr. Obama’s former director of the Domestic Policy Council, and his former deputy homeland security adviser, Amy Pope, have focused on stimulating climate change research in the next department’s leadership decision.
When the agency does not become a “meteorological department,” the adviser said, the new administration will use the research to shape resilience in response to natural disasters and to help the Coast Guard patrol the Arctic. Subsequent homeland security leaders can rely on meteorology to predict migration to places like Guatemala, where coffee rust has disrupted the crop on which farmers rely.
“This is something that needs to be a long-term priority for DHS,” said Thomas S., a former top terrorism official in the department and co-author of the report, emphasizing the future role of the Department of Defense against cybersecurity this year. Epidemic and white supremacy.
Mr. Warrick’s co-author, Caitlin Durkovich, is on Mr. Biden’s official transition team.
The volunteer team emphasizes that change will come not from rigorous restructuring but from employees. Of the 74 leadership positions in the Department of Homeland Security, 18 are either vacant or held by an executive officer. His appointments have been questioned by government watchdogs and courts even while on duty in acting capacity. As of Saturday, a federal judge said the acting secretary of homeland security, Chad F. Wolf was not legally serving when he suspended offspring consent for offspring in July, when he was brought to America as an offspring.
The two advisers involved in the planning meetings said the team is advising the incoming administration that those who led immigration oversight agencies, including those who publicly opposed the White House’s efforts or publicly opposed Mr. Trump.
One adviser said they were “poisoned”.
Some transition officials have nominated Alejandro N., a former deputy secretary of security and director of citizenship and immigration services, to become the next secretary. There was a rally around Mayorcas.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. His background as an attorney and Cuban immigrant will appeal to both law enforcement officers in the agency and the immigrant communities in the United States. He asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture.
But the reinstatement of officers serving as Mr. Obama’s president, who has been criticized as a “critic” and who extended the detention at the border, could lead to a left-wing conspiracy to respond to the surge in migrants.
“I hope people can see some of the flaws in their style.” Ms. “We will stay awake,” Franco added.
The Trump administration has made more than 400 changes to tighten or stifle immigration, and while Mr. Biden may bring back issues raised by executive orders or policy reminders, it will take time to save policies that have gone through a good regulatory process, according to Sarah Pierce. , Policy Analyst for Migration Policy Organization.
“On immigration, I expect them to stick to high-profile items, come up with a very simple procedural way and with minimal logistical burden,” Ms. Pierce said.
Presidential transition
It includes a final travel ban that bans travel to 13 predominantly Muslim and African countries and thwarts the Trump administration’s efforts to print a defense for the nearly 700,000 young immigrants brought into the country as children.
Mr Biden also plans to increase the refugee entry cap to 125,000, to impose a 100-day period on deportation and direct immigration and customs enforcement to focus on violent criminals. But it was not clear how it would rebuild the damaged resettlement system to welcome the details of its temporary suspension upon the removal of too many immigrants or undocumented immigrants.
The new administration will end the declaration of a national emergency, allowing Mr. Trump to divert billions of dollars to the Pentagon border wall, but an adviser involved in the transition said there are no plans to cut the 400-mile wall.
Aside from the asylum restrictions imposed by the Trump administration and the possibility of using public assistance, immigration is likely to be more challenging to resolve other laws, such as the public charge rule that does not allow greencards.
Ms. Pierce said the new administration could embark on a lengthy process of changing Trump’s rules or, as the public charge rule goes to court, amend that rule in the settlement.
Mr Biden has also revived the long-running democratic goal of paving the way for citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants, but without the Democratic Senate it is potentially impossible. (Senate control over two Senate run-up races in Georgia in January.)
The expected increase in migration to the south-west border in the coming months will test Mr Biden’s ability to stop the flow of border facilities while balancing the demand for his party’s liberal and middle-wing.
“We will treat our immigrants with respect and give them due process, which they do not do under this administration,” said Lucille Roebel-Allard, chair of the House Allocation Subcommittee on Homeland Security, who represented the Biden campaign in the platform negotiations. With Senator Bernie Sanders. “Will that be enough? Probably not. “
Epidemics are another immediate challenge.
The threat assessment released by the Department of Homeland Security in October concluded that the coronavirus had exacerbated “economic and political conditions within the region,” which had accelerated migration.
Mr Biden said he would consider reviving a version of the program that would allow children and young adults to apply for asylum in their home country instead of making the long, dangerous journey across the border. He also said he would assist Central America in deploying alliances from the Judiciary and Treasury departments to fight corruption.
But on the physical frontier, Mr. Biden’s plans are more focused on what he will stop than what he will develop.
It has said it will stop “metering”, which restricts the number of migrants who can be protected at border ports. It is unclear whether it will scrap agreements with Central American countries that would allow the United States to divert migrants to the region for protection. They will end Mr Trump’s “stay in Mexico” policy of sending more than 60,000 migrants back to Mexico to wait for an asylum hearing postponed during the epidemic.
Mr Biden’s advisers have called on asylum officials and immigration judges to rush to the border to discuss the safety of those families and others.
“The real question is scale. If there is a surge in the border, can they be reached quickly enough? An official involved in the transition said.
Mr Biden has not committed to lifting the public health emergency rule, which has essentially closed the border to asylum seekers. The Trump administration has cited the threat of an epidemic to force border patrol agents to quickly return to Mexico or their home countries without giving migrants a chance to hear their asylum claims. The campaign adviser said the administration plans to consult with public health officials to discuss the policy.
Biden Advisors also acknowledged the need to increase the capacity of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for providing shelter to children traveling alone. It will seek congressional approval.
Mr Biden has said he will reduce the funds used to detain migrants and instead rely more on programs to ensure they appear in immigration court once they are released in the United States.
Brandon Jude, president of the Border Patrol Union’s National Border Patrol Council, said “catch-and-release” would mean a sufficient shorthand for detainees to simply disappear in order to be detained. Mr. Trump has argued that the policy encourages migration.
Mr Jude said: “Obviously my members were hoping that President Trump would win, and they were hoping that he would win because of what happens with border security.” “Let’s hope Biden proves us wrong.” But we have missed this movie and are expecting a replay. “
