Biden bets big on immigration reform in opening move

SAN DIEGO (AP) — For opening salvo of his presidency, few expected Joe Biden to be so far reaching on immigration.

A raft of executive orders issued Wednesday undoes many of his predecessor’s hallmark initiatives, such as halting work on a border wall with Mexico, lifting a travel ban on people from several predominantly Muslim countries and reversing plans to exclude people in country illegally from 2020 census.

Biden is also ordering his cabinet to work to preserve Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program kwn as DACA that has shielded hundreds of thousands of people who came to U.S. as children from deportation since it was introduced in 2012. In dition, he is extending temporary legal status to Liberians who fled civil war and Ebola outbreak to June 2022.

But that's just beginning. Biden’s most ambitious proposal, unveiled Wednesday, is an immigration bill that would give legal status and a path to citizenship to anyone in United States before Jan. 1 — an estimated 11 million people — and reduce time that family members must wait outside United States for green cards.

Taken toger, Biden's plans represent a sharp U-turn after four years of relentless strikes against immigration, captured most vividly by separation of thousands of children from ir parents under a “zero tolerance” policy on illegal border crossings. Former President Donald Trump's ministration also took hundreds of or steps to enhance enforcement, limit eligibility for asylum and cut legal immigration.

Biden's pack dispels any belief that his policies would resemble those of former President Barack Obama, who promised a sweeping bill his first year in office but waited five years while logging more than 2 million deportations.

Er to avoid a rush on border, Biden aides signaled that it will take time to unwind some of Trump's border policies, which include making asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court.

It "will take months to be fully up and running in terms of being able to do kind of asylum processing that we want to be able to do,” Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security visor, told reporters.

ministration has been mum on a 100-day moratorium on deportations that Biden promised, though he is revoking one of Trump's earliest executive orders making anyone in country illegally a priority for deportations. Susan Rice, he of White House Domestic Policy Council, said any moratorium would come from Homeland Security Department, t president.

Despite deliberative pace in some areas, Biden's moves left pro-immigration vocates overjoyed. Greisa Martinez Rosas, executive director of United We Dream, called legislation “ most progressive legalization bill in history.”

“We me it,” she said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. "We me this day happen."

It is even more striking because immigration got scarce mention during campaign, and issue has divided Republicans and Democrats, even within ir own parties. Legislative efforts failed in 2007 and 2013.

More favorable attitudes toward immigration — especially among Democrats — may weigh in Biden’s favor. A Gallup survey last year found that 34% of those polled supported more immigration, up from 21% in 2016 and higher than any time since Gallup began asking question in 1965.

Seven in 10 voters said y preferred offering immigrants in U.S. illegally a chance to apply for legal status, compared with about 3 in 10 who thought y should be deported to country y came from, according to AP VoteCast. survey of more than 110,000 voters in vember showed 9 in 10 Biden voters but just about half of Trump voters were in favor of a path to legal status.

Under bill, most people would wait eight years for citizenship but those enrolled in DACA, those with temporary protective status for fleeing strife-torn countries and farmworkers would wait three years.

bill also offers development aid to Central America, reduces 1.2 million-case backlog in immigration courts and provides more visas for underrepresented countries and crime victims.

proposal would let eligible family members wait in United States for green cards by granting temporary status until ir petitions are processed — a population that Kerri Talbot of vocacy group Immigration Hub estimates at 4 million.

Unmarried ult children of U.S. citizens who have been waiting outside country for more than six years are just getting ir numbers called this month . Waits are even longer for some nationalities. Married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens from Mexico have been waiting outside United States since August 1996.

bill faces an ermous test in Congress. Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said Wednesday that he would le Senate effort. Skeptics will te that Ronald Regan's 1986 amnesty for nearly 3 million immigrants preceded large numbers of new arrivals and say to expect more of same.

In a taste of what's to come, Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, described bill as having “open borders: Total amnesty, regard for health and security of Americans, and zero enforcement.”

To be clear, enforcement has expanded exponentially since mid-1990s and will remain. Biden's bill calls for more techlogy at land crossings, airports and seaports and authorizes Homeland Security secretary to consider or steps.

Biden warned vocates last week that y should t hold him to pass within 100 days, said Domingo Garcia of League of United Latin American Citizens, who was on a call with president.

“Today we celebrate," Carlos Guevara of pro-immigration group UnidosUS said Wednesday. "Tomorrow we roll up our sleeves and get to work.”

Im: Associated Press