It’s been a few weeks since President Biden was inaugurated and there has been a dizzying volume of news about executive orders, potential bills, rumors, and chaos. Here we are providing our supporters with some guidance, analysis, and just the smallest amount of editorializing so that you can understand what is happening and how you can remain an active and engaged advocate for humane immigration policy. Please bear in mind that what we have here is by no means everything, just some highlights as it pertains to our work, and that things are changing daily. One of the easiest ways to explain the present moment is by describing what has changed, what has not changed, and what could change. This is because in spite of the commotion, the spirited announcements, and pre-emptive victory laps, much of the substance of these orders have been to review, pause, or even state an intention and there has not been significant change for the people who are suffering daily. 

• WHAT HAS CHANGED 

  • Refugee numbers

    • Announcing that “America is back” in the most swift move yet of the administration, Biden signed an executive order to restore the number of Refugee Admissions. The program had been all but destroyed during the Trump administration going from 110,000 admissions per year to a mere 15,000. The announcement said that Biden intended to raise admissions numbers to 125,000 starting in October of 2021. It is really important to note that in US law, refugees and asylum seekers are different groups. Refugees are people who are identified and vetted and put in a program in countries outside of the US. Asylum seekers are people who arrive in the US asking for protection. Both are completely legal ways of seeking protection from persecution in your home country although as a matter of continuing policy asylum seekers are brutally punished on our border. 

  • MPP Is not taking new enrollments

    • The ridiculously named Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) was one of the most vicious and least visible policies of the Trump Administration. It returned asylum seeking migrants back to Mexico to await their court hearings in U.S. border cities giving the migrants the choice to abandon their case and return the country they fled or, somehow, stay in places like Tijuana, Juarez, and Matamoros and survive without any support from the US or Mexico government for months on end. It has been a nightmare that was overshadowed by the coverage of zero-tolerance policy and family separation. While there are currently almost 70,000 individuals enrolled in this program, the Biden administration has stopped enrolling people. But, as you will see later in this outline, the border remains closed to asylum seekers so in spite of the fact that the program is now closed, there is no functional way to claim asylum and the Biden administration has been all but silent about how they plan to help the tens of thousands of people harmed by this program. 

  • Task forces have been created

    • It is difficult to characterize this as a change, per se, but it is a step in the right direction, albeit a very slow step. By executive order the Biden administration has committed to studying and reviewing some of the Trump Administration’s most horrible policies including: Zero Tolerance/Family separation; the aforementioned MPP program; and the public charge. He also is reviewing the root causes of Central American migration.  What will happen at the end of the many months of review remains unclear and activists are reacting carefully, encouraging these steps but also expressing frustration for the people who are suffering now. 

  • Private Prison Contracts

    • In another first step, the Biden administration has ordered the Department of Justice to stop making contracts with private prison corporations. This is the correct move, as private prison corporations are toxic and terrible entities that profit off of human suffering. It is important to note that while this order will affect 11 private prisons that the DOJ has right now, it will not affect the 75% of private detention centers under DHS control that detain migrants in the US. The Biden administration is going to have to go farther. One of the best sources for learning about private detention in our country is the Detention Watch Network. Read their op-ed on this issue here. 

• WHAT HAS NOT CHANGED

  • DACA

    • In June, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of DACA recipients and opened the process up to people who had never applied for DACA and needed to for the first time. After months of the Trump administration maneuvering to keep the program closed the courts ordered DACA to open in November and for the first time in 3 years, young immigrants were invited to apply. This program remains open and here at Santa Fe Dreamers Project, our team is extremely busy trying to help hundreds of young adults enroll. But nothing has changed in the DACA program. The Biden administration, along with an enormous number of Congresspeople, has indicated that they will aggressively support a permanent pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients but that is still in the beginning stages and a lot could change along the way. The program remains under threat though and Congress might need to move faster than expected.

  • 100 Day Deportation Moratorium

    • Shortly after Biden took office, the administration announced that there would be a 100 day moratorium on deportation of people who already had removal orders to their country of origin. There were some restrictions on who this would apply to, notably it did not apply to people who entered the US after 11/1/2020 and people with certain criminal convictions. Texas quickly sued, however, and Arizona followed suit. So, shortly after the announcement, a Federal Judge in Texas enjoined the executive action and it remains enjoined today. This means that ICE is currently removing people. Some high profile removals that have been in the news include families, flights full of Hatians and Cameroonians, a cooperating witness to the massacre in El Paso in 2019, and, of course, countless Mexicans and Central Americans. 

  • Detention Continues

    • The Biden Administration has been mostly silent on the issue of immigration detention. Detention numbers in the US are the lowest that they have been in decades with detention numbers around 14,000 (compared to 60,000 last year). Detention remains dangerous, especially as the pandemic continues. Advocates are pressing the Biden Administration to clarify what the new enforcement priorities at ICE could mean for people detained but there are absolutely no guidelines. It is important to point out ICE detention is and has always been discretionary and all 14,000 people in custody could be released today.  To keep in touch with what is going on with immigration detention, Freedom for Immigrants remains an excellent source 

  • Border Closure

    • Many Americans are not aware that the US border has been closed to migrants and asylum seekers for most of the last year under a law called Title 42 which claims that a closed border keeps our country safer in a pandemic that the federal government spent considerable effort downplaying. This means that the vast majority of people caught entering the country through the port of entry were immediately expelled to Mexico without due process and the ports of entry were completely closed to everyone but citizens and residents. It made seeking asylum in the US functionally impossible. There was hope that the Biden Administration would lift the Title 42 closures but on February 11, the WH press secretary confirmed that the border would remain closed telling migrants that “now is not the time to come”. This action ensures that seeking asylum in the US will remain nearly impossible and continue the Obama and Trump administrations assault on the internationally recognized right for refugees to seek asylum when their lives are in danger. 

• WHAT COULD CHANGE

  • New Enforcement Priorities

    • The Biden Administration outlined new enforcement priorities for ICE shortly after the inauguration. The initial guidance suggested that ICE would not prioritize the arrest or removal of people unless they: entered the US after 11/1/2020; were a terrorist or threat to national security; or had been convicted of what’s known as an aggravated felony in immigration law. These priorities would give much needed breathing room to millions of undocumented of americans but also deserved to be criticized because they continue to rely on a structurally racist criminal justice system to decide who deserves to stay in our country. These priorities were supposed to take effect on February 1 but it isn’t clear how it is being enforced or if ICE plans on complying. There are rumors guidelines are coming soon. Read about them here. 

  • Potential Reform Legislation

    • The Biden administration has been clear that they intend to push aggressive legislation to address much needed immigration reform in this. Central to this proposal will be status for the near 11 million people living in the country without papers. Importantly, the proposed legislation also takes aim at the broken system of family immigration. It also does not trade these reforms for enhanced border security and stricter policies concerning those trying to enter the US which is a notable change from previous attempts at reform over the last decade. Of course, this proposed legislation has a long way to go to make it through the gauntlet of Congress and come out as law and it could change drastically in that journey. Vox does a great job explaining the finer points of the bill.

  • New Mexico Private Prison Ban

    • New Mexicans, in case you missed it, SFDP has been working in the People Over Private Prisons New Mexico coalition to put forth HB40 in this year’s legislative session that would ban private prison and detention contracts. The bill has passed two committees and is moving forward to the finance committee. It is not too late to get involved and the place for that is the POPP-NM website! That is your first stop to learn everything about why this bill is so important to NM

That's it for now. Thank you for your continued support and stay tuned in for future updates as things develop!