Archive for the ‘Immigration Reform’ Category

The new Congress, the next president – Martha’s Vineyard Times

In the days before the next Congress convenes on Jan. 3 and the inauguration of the new president, 17 days later, the House and Senate have their work cut out for them. Not only must they pass a continuing resolution on the budget to keep the government open, but also a defense spending bill. And of course, during the ongoing health and economic crisis, it would help millions of Americans to pass another stimulus bill, even if it is well below the House-passed $3.4 trillion measure last May that the Senate has declined to consider.

Despite the runoff Georgia Senate election on Jan. 5, let us presume for a moment that we will have a divided government in January: a Democrat in the White House and a Republican-controlled Senate, with Democrats holding the House. Is it possible, despite years and years of partisan rancor and attacks, that our elected representatives will come together? President-elect Joe Biden claims he can do so. But will Congress be able to pass anything to help the American people?

While it may be an act of self-absorbed naivete, I would argue yes, they can.

The most encouraging development in the past decade is the recent bipartisan attempt in the Senate to draft a package that will benefit everyone. It provides funding for state and local governments and small businesses, unemployment benefits that last until the end of March, new monies for vaccines and healthcare, and a shield for businesses, protecting them from liability suits as a result of COVID-19. Fellow Republicans of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) can persuade him to come along.

Why? Simply because a few years back, before McConnell seemed only to care about maintaining a Senate Republican majority, he was a moderate legislator working with Democrats to get things done. In his biography, The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell, Alec McGillis notes that McConnell once supported abortion rights and public employee unions. McConnell gradually slipped into his heralded obstructionist role, beginning under President Obama. He then, somewhat startlingly, doggedly became the lapdog of President Trump, pushing through his judicial nominations with little due diligence. Without Obama and Trump, perhaps he will again work with the Democrats.

One reason may be Joe Biden, a longtime former McConnell colleague in the Senate. But another reason could be the Republicans who joined the recent bipartisan coalition that promoted a new COVID stimulus package: Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) appear to be on board, and the president said he will sign it.

If 60 senators in the new Congress can overcome the filibuster and work with the next president, they may achieve a great deal on problems they want to resolve. The top of the list is obvious: winning the battle over the pandemic, with sufficient funding and scientific and medical expertise to ensure most Americans are vaccinated by June.

While continued long-term deficit spending, in my judgment, undermines the stability of the economy, an exception is always possible during a crisis. Congress and the president can devise, if needed, another stimulus package in early 2021 to help Americans in terms of unemployment, small businesses, and state and local governments.

Other areas open for Democrats and Republicans to work together are easy to identify. Infrastructure, for example: our roads, our bridges, our water systems, and the like are all profoundly in need of massive retrofitting. Democrats and Republicans can also work together to control the costs of healthcare, especially the drugs that so many Americans need.

Immigration reform may not be out of reach. After all, in 2005, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) cosponsored a bill with Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) that would have normalized the lives of nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., created a guest worker program, and strengthened border control. President George W. Bush supported it. It failed to pass.

Healing the toll taken on Americans by climate change may well be an area of cooperation as well. While the Green New Deal promoted by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) is aspirational, smaller steps could attract a bipartisan group of lawmakers to work together in favor of green energy measures. Additional areas may include a middle-class tax cut and an expansion of national service for our nations youth. Legislators could also find ways to combat the increasing competitiveness of China, like ensuring that our supply chains are homegrown.

Finally, Congress must act to help the many Americans without a college education who feel left out. The next Congress and the new president can guarantee ways in which they will enjoy pathways to new careers, perhaps even in the new energy areas. This will undoubtedly require a great deal of training and education.

So, maybe we have entered a new era. At least I hope so, as we look forward to 2021 as a watershed year of cooperation, collegiality, and production in the U.S. government.

Jack Fruchtman, a resident of Aquinnah, taught constitutional law and politics for more than 40 years.

Read more:
The new Congress, the next president - Martha's Vineyard Times

6 Ways the Biden Administration Should Protect Food and Farm Workers From Covid-19 – Environmental Working Group

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic worsened by the Trump administrations woefully anemic response has taken the lives of more than 300 food and farm workers and sickened tens of thousands more, turning the nations food-processing plants and farms into virus hot spots.

Where Farmworkers Face High Covid-19 Risk

Source: EWG, from USDAs 2017 Census of Agriculture and Johns Hopkins Universitys Coronavirus Resource Center

Working conditions make food and farm workers especially vulnerable to Covid-19. So what should the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden do to protect them? Here are six things the new administration must do quickly.

1. Immediately issue emergency protective standards to require food and farm employers to protect their workers from Covid-19.

Trump has refused to protect workers, instead issuing an executive order to protect employers from liability when their negligence endangers their employees. Some states have acted, but most have not. And now, some legislators are proposing to make food and farm employers immune from liability when they fail to protect their workers.

2. Make sure food and farm workers are first in line for vaccines, once they are approved.

As more and more workers become sick during the current Covid-19 surge, food supply chains could quickly unravel, sending food prices spiking and increasing the number of Americans who struggle with hunger. The Biden administration must recognize that food and farm workers are essential workers.

3. Immediately shut down Trumps farmer bailout programs and redirect the funds so that they protect food and farm workers.

The tens of billions of dollars meant to relieve the effects of Trumps trade wars have not only flowed disproportionately to the largest and most successful farms but have also largely bypassed the smaller farms that have struggled to keep their workers safe from Covid-19. Biden should instead use emergency funds to provide food and farm workers with personal protective equipment and safe housing and transportation.

4. Ensure that food and farm workers get compensated for the risks they take to feed us.

Rather than provide food and farm workers hazard pay, the Trump administration has actually sought to cut farmworker wages and to strip away what few protections they do have by changing labor rules. The Biden administration should rescind Trumps proposals to cut farmworker wages and instead ensure that food and farm workers receive sick pay when they get sick from Covid-19. Biden has also pledged to support a $15 minimum wage and measures that will make it easier for workers to organize, including farmworkers.

5. Demand that Congress pass legislation giving undocumented farmworkers and their families the opportunity for permanent resident status and U.S. citizenship.

According to the advocacy group Farmworker Justice, at least half of the nations roughly 2.4 million farmworkers are undocumented immigrants. Meaningful immigration reform must provide them with protection from deportation and a path to full citizenship. The new administration should also press Congress to fix the programs that bring temporary farmworkers to the U.S.

6. Strengthen the Environmental Protection Agencys Agricultural Worker Protection Standard.

The Trump administration continues to weaken environmental health protections for farmworkers. The Biden administration should make it a priority to protect farmworkers from pesticides. It should immediately ban toxic pesticides like chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to brain damage.

Farm and food workers are working long hours, at enormous personal risk, to feed us. The Biden administration must make every effort to protect these essential workers and recognize the critical contributions they make to our nation. Food and farm workers have always taken care of us now we must take care of them.

Read the rest here:
6 Ways the Biden Administration Should Protect Food and Farm Workers From Covid-19 - Environmental Working Group

Business Immigration: What 2021 Will Bring for Foreign Entrepreneurs in the U.S. – Entrepreneur

In 2021, President-elect Joe Biden will have to deal with many restrictive immigration policiesput in place by the Trump administration. Attorneys expect that, at least, a few of these regulations could be overturned. The presidential proclamations that used the pandemic as an excuse toban visa issuance for H-1Bprogram have already been set aside.

This week, the federal judge in San Franciscosaidthe Covid-19 pandemic cannot justify visa restrictions for the H-1B program, which benefits U.S. tech companies. According to judge Jeffrey White, a large number of job vacancies remain in the areas most affected by Rules: computer operations which require high-skilled workers.

Constraints on H-1B visas were introduced in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Two rules announced in October required companies to pay higher wages to foreign employees and introduced limits on specialty occupations.

Over the last several years, the combined disruption of Trumps executive orders and Covid-19, which shut down U.S. consulates globally, managed to curtail business-related immigration without changing immigration law itself, said Jordana Hart, attorney fromGonzalez & Hart, an immigration law practice in Miami. It will take time to undo so much of the damage, which has also affected the U.S.s reputation for openness and welcome.

According to attorneys, the change of political tone has already made a difference at the local branches of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and in immigration court. I had a USCIS in Utah calling my client to come back for her swear-in a day after the exam took place so the client could become a U.S. citizen immediately, as she needed to leave the country, said Margo Chernysheva ofMC Law Groupin Las Vegas. This would not have happened a year or two ago.

J.J. Despain,managing attorney atWilner & OReilly, said he expects attitudes to change at U.S.consulates and embassies. Every officer screening foreign applicants has his or her own style, and that style can magnify depending on the guidance coming from above, Despain said.

Visa processing times, however, will most likely remain the same: part of the slowdown is due to a lack of funds, since USCIS is fee-driven, said Jordana Hart.By 2021 legal immigration to the U.S.is projected to drop by 49%, which means a corresponding drop in the fees that keep USCIS going. The wounding of U.S. immigration by a thousand cuts under Trump led to the decrease in filings, Hart added.

Options for foreign entrepreneurs and investors would remain limited, especially for those seeking to start a business, believes Joshua Goldstein ofGoldstein Immigration Lawyersin Los Angeles. America needs to modernize its immigration system, Goldstein said. But passing new legislation will seem politically impossible, as the Republicans hold political power and remain adamantly opposed.

Right now, according to Chernysheva, the only visa that is still valid for entrepreneurs is an investor treatment E-2 visa, but it is not available for every country and does not providepermanent residential status. But international business founders come from a variety of backgrounds, and many of them are former international students.

There should be an immigration path open for them, too, Goldstein believes. Look around Menlo Park, Kendall Square, or Silicon Beach in Los Angeles and its obvious that many of these amazing companies came about through the talents of foreign nationals, Goldstein said.

Enacting a program forStartup Visas, similar to the ones in Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, would allow visas for foreign entrepreneurs who raised capital from qualified U.S. investors.The Startup Visa Actwas introduced in the U.S. Senate in 2013, but was never passed.

I think the new administration recognizes that having a startup visa is critical to revitalizing our economy and will do everything in their power to ensure there are pathways for this talent to come to the U.S., said Jason Finkelman, immigration attorney atFinkelman Law.

The Biden administration plans to expand immigration options for entrepreneurs who can contribute to the U.S. economy, but lawyers dont expect a lot of actual laws to change. These laws and rules come from Congress, so they are much harder to adjust, believes J.J. Despain, of Wilner & OReilly.

Also, for the E-1 and E-2 visas, the countries whose citizens get to apply for them are determined by treaties between those countries and the U.S., Despain said. New countries could be added to the list, but this will depend on American foreign policy.

By the end of 2022, attorneys expect, some type of comprehensive immigration reform will begin to take shape. However, if the U.S. Senate remains under Republican control, the Biden administration will not be able to change regulations, just as prior administrations were stymied by congressional opposition, said Jordana Hart. Changes to the visa programs for investors and entrepreneurs will only come if Biden has the fortitude to make use of his executive order powers, she added.

See the original post:
Business Immigration: What 2021 Will Bring for Foreign Entrepreneurs in the U.S. - Entrepreneur

Thanks for the memories, One Day at a Time. You helped my daughter and me get through lockdown. – Worcester Telegram

Heidi Stevens| Chicago Tribune

One Day At A Time, the practically perfect Netflix series that reprised Norman Lears 1975 sitcom, is no more.

Writer and producer Gloria Caldern Kellett tweeted the lousy news Tuesday night. Its officially over, she wrote. There will be no new @OneDayAtATime episodes. But there will always be 46 episodes that we got to make that live FOREVER. Thank you to this beautiful cast. Our dedicated crew. And to you, our loyal fans. We loved making this for you. Thank you for watching.

(Sob!)

The show, centered around the Cuban American Alvarez family living in Los Angeles, debuted on Netflix in 2017, where it ran for three seasons before being canceled. A truncated fourth season premiered in March on Pop TV, and news broke in late November that it was again looking for a new home after Pop TV canceled it.

I was late to the show. Im late to a lot of shows. My pre-pandemic life didnt include much TV. Now Im catching up on a lot of what I missed, and One Day at a Time has been, by far, my favorite find.

My 15-year-old daughter and I watched all 46 episodes together during this infernal pandemic and it has been as critical to our sanity and salvation as all the walking, biking, baking, meal-planning, meme-exchanging, brownie-eating and old-photo-scrolling weve also done. Probably more so, if Im being honest.

The show was smart. And hilarious. And sly. Rita Moreno, who played the grandmother, was perfection. Justina Machado played single mom Penelope with so much heart and grit and honesty I wanted to reach into my screen and hug her. There honestly wasnt a weak spot in the cast.

Those 46 episodes tackled patriotism, combat-induced post-traumatic stress disorder, gun control, immigration reform, gender fluidity, sexuality, homophobia, masturbation, virginity, sexual harassment, vaping, edibles, white fragility, the stigma around therapy, shifting notions of masculinity, dreams deferred and what defines a family beyond blood or marriage.

There were moments when the show transcended sitcom status with its deft, nervy handling of sensitive topics, particularly the wildly different ways those topics are perceived by different generations.

Season three, episode two was one example. Alex, Penelopes teenage son, had been posting some groping photos on his Finsta (fake Instagram). His mom and sister found out and decided it was a good time for a talk about consent. His grandmother decided it was a good time for a talk about swagger.

Every no is a yes in disguise, Lydia (Morenos character) tells her grandson, before launching into a story about Ta Mimi being blindfolded and led into a cornfield to be wooed by Tio Rico.

That is romance, Lydia says.

That is the plot of Taken 2, Penelope replies.

The episode wove in somber notes from there, with Penelope and her daughter, Elena, sharing their own experiences with harassment and assault. But none of it was ham-handed. Always, on every topic, you were left with a slightly more nuanced understanding of a given subject.

It really was impressive. And to watch it with a teenager, when time is heavy and school is remote and friendships are strained and lost rituals are piling up and nerves are shot, well, it was nothing short of a gift.

So long, One Day at a Time. I really will miss you.

Im so grateful for what you gave me these last few months side by side time with my daughter, an opening for tough conversations, so many laughs.

Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Dr. Leslie Berkowitz on the show, tweeted a farewell Tuesday night.

I learned a hard lesson a few years ago in New York: There is always a closing night. For the good shows, it transforms into a smile. For the bad shows it becomes comedy. For One Day at a Time it will be pride and amazement that something wonderful happened in its time.

And its time and timing was impeccable.

See the article here:
Thanks for the memories, One Day at a Time. You helped my daughter and me get through lockdown. - Worcester Telegram

Biden Has Promised to Undo Trump’s Immigration Policies. How Much Is He Really Likely to Reform? – TIME

President Donald Trump ran his first presidential campaign on the promise to overhaul U.S. immigration, and for the most part, he kept that promise. Month after month, from the very start of Trumps term, immigration policy changed rapidly, from the Zero Tolerance policy that separated children from their parents, to record low caps on the number of refugees accepted by the U.S. each year.

President-elect Joe Biden has promised to undo most if not all of President Trumps immigration reforms. Hes pledged, for instance, to immediately end the ban restricting foreigners from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. and reinstate protections from deportation for the roughly 650,000 people who arrived in the U.S. illegally as minors, known as Dreamers.

But after four years of sweeping changes, making some changes could prove more complicated, and could come through executive orders, presidential proclamations or possibly get stuck in a divided Congress, experts say. For instance, the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), otherwise known as Remain in Mexico, which has kept an estimated more than 67,000 asylum seekers in Mexico while their cases are adjudicated in the U.S., could prove difficult to reverse if the Biden Administration hopes to avoid a surge in migration to the southern border.

And while Bidens campaign website promises to modernize Americas immigration system, immigration advocates and attorneys point out that the Obama-Biden Administration oversaw millions of deportations and an expansion of family detention, raising concerns about what the next four years will bring. Spokespeople from the Biden transition team and the Biden Campaign did not return TIMEs request for comment.

The Trump Administration made immigration its signature issue, says Tom Wong, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California San Diego. What well see from a Biden Administration within the first 100 days are those things that can be undone with the stroke of a pen [Immigration] advocates need to be clear-eyed that a Biden Administration does not automatically bring about comprehensive immigration reform.

Here is what Biden is promising, and what hell likely be able to deliver during his term.

Among the changes Biden has promised to make during the first 100 days of his Administration is reinstating Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era executive action that Trump rescinded in 2017 which provides protection from deportation for an estimated 650,000 people who arrived in the U.S. illegally as children.

An estimated 56,000 people who have become eligible since Trump ended DACA would be able to submit applications if Biden reinstated the program, according to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a nonpartisan research organization. Biden has also promised to ensure that Dreamers are eligible for federal student aid, making higher education more accessible to those with limited financial options.

But without comprehensive immigration reform, which could overhaul and modernize the U.S. immigration system and create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, this population will continue to live in uncertainty about their future in the U.S. Though Biden has laid out a lengthy ambitious plan for immigration, a divided Congress could mean barriers to policy changes like comprehensive immigration reform, which includes, among other things, a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., including Dreamers.

Biden has also promised to rescind the so-called Muslim ban on his first day in office, putting an end to travel bans from 13 countries, many of which are home to Muslim-majority populations. Wong says ending the travel ban would not only be a change to U.S. policy, but would symbolize a change in the nations immigration priorities. The Muslim ban was one of the first executive actions that the Trump Administration took that really made clear its stated preferences not just to limit immigration, but to limit certain kinds of immigration, he says. It wasnt just about reducing overall numbers, it was about gaming the immigration system to allow a certain privileged few to enter, while excluding others.

Biden has also promised that on the first day of his presidency, he will appoint a task force to track down the parents of 545 children who have still not been found three years after Trumps Zero Tolerance Policy was enacted. (According NBC News, the number of children could be as high as 666). The task force may have their work cut out for them, as the Trump Administration never kept comprehensive contact information for the parents whose children were separated from them. For that reason, advocates and attorneys tell TIME, we may never actually know the total number of children who were separated from their parents under the policy.

The current estimate is that more than 5,500 were separated during Trumps Zero Tolerance policy, and during a pilot program in El Paso, Texas, before the policy was implemented. Additional children were separated after a June 2018 executive order ending the practice. Many of the parents for these children have been located, either in the U.S. or abroad, and have been reunited, but for the 545 children whose parents have yet to be located, it is unclear whether they have been reunited.

While experts acknowledge the challenge facing the task force, they welcome the effort. We certainly think that its a good idea to create a task force, says Christie Turner-Herbas, Director of Special Programs at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), a nonprofit aiding in the the family reunification process. We still feel like we havent gotten full and complete records from every different kind of government agency that might have information about the parents or the children, or other contact information Something like a task force could really assist with that effort.

Read more: The U.S. Separated Families Decades Ago, Too. With 545 Migrant Children Missing Their Parents, That Moment Holds a Key Lesson

Another immediate reversal Biden plans to make is in relation Trumps controversial border wall, which he promised during his 2016 campaign would be paid for by Mexico. That didnt happen, but in February 2019, Trump declared a national emergency, allowing his administration to redirect Department of Defense money into the walls construction. About 400 miles of border wall went up in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas during the Trump Administration, which includes repairs to already existing barriers.

There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my Administration, Biden told NPRs Lulu Garcia-Navarro during an August roundtable with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Biden has promised end the national emergency declaration, immediately ending wall construction and cutting the funding, but has said he would not knock down the wall that was constructed during the Trump Administration

Despite Bidens promises to end Trumps detrimental asylum policies, experts say undoing Trumps unprecedented asylum restrictions will be a balancing act. There are some steps the Biden Administration could take, for example, to end Trumps metering policy, that limits the amount of people who can make an initial claim for asylum per day. Biden could also end Trumps expulsions that have taken place since March 2020 as COVID-19 has spread across the U.S. and most of the world.

Read more: Migrants Stranded in Mexico Have 1 Year to File for Asylum. COVID-19 Is Making That Deadline Nearly Impossible

DHSs expulsion rule allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to immediately remove anyone who crosses the border without authorization to their last country of transit without traditional processing or a chance to have their claims heard in court because of the risks posed by COVID-19. Since the rule was adopted in March, U.S. Border Patrol has conducted more than 197,000 expulsions, according to CBP data.

But the new Administration will likely be cautious about quickly ending the so-called Remain in Mexico program, which stipulates asylum seekers who claim asylum in the U.S. after entering from Mexico must wait in Mexico while their cases are heard, without first developing a plan to prevent a surge in migration at the U.S./Mexico border.

Read more: Theyre Screaming for Help. See Drawings From Children Stuck in Mexico as They Seek U.S. Asylum

Though Bidens campaign pledge has been to reassert Americas commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees, there is evidence that migration flows to the U.S. can follow changes in U.S. immigration policy, according to MPI. For example, after Trump took office, there were record low flows of migration to the U.S. at first as people waited to see what Trump would do.

If and when the future Biden Administration changes these restrictive [asylum] policies, it will have to do so with great care and planning and in a way that balances humanitarian concerns while avoiding a rush on the border that could overwhelm resources, and result in a renewed sense throughout the country that the border is out of control, Jessica Bolter, an associate policy analyst at MPI, said during a Nov. 9 webinar.

The Biden Administration may also have to rethink guidance to immigration judges on how to adjudicate asylum cases. In 2014, a judge found that a woman escaping a domestic violence situation did qualify for asylum, setting a new precedent that was later overturned by then Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2018. Sessions also decided that fleeing gang violence was not grounds for asylum. Biden is likely to return to Obama-era guidance which allowed for both claims, according to MPI, but even under Obama, the odds of being granted asylum in the U.S. were low.

The U.S. was once considered the world leader on refugee protections, offering permanent resettlement to more people per year than any other country in the world combined, according to the American Immigration Council. The U.S. has been a leader in shaping resettlement programs since admitting more than one million refugees in the aftermath of World War Two. That ended abruptly during the Trump Administration, which lowered the cap on the number of refugees admitted into the U.S. each year. In October, The White House announced it was setting the fiscal year 2021 cap at 15,000 refugees, an all-time low.

Read more: I Oversaw DHS Refugee Affairs. Here Are 3 Ways the Trump Administration Is Trying to Mislead You

Biden has promised to increase the refugee admittance cap to 125,000 people a higher ceiling than during the Obama-Biden Administration and seek to raise it over time commensurate with our responsibility, our values, and the unprecedented global need, according to his campaign website. According to the UNHCR, at the end of 2019 there were an estimated 26 million refugees worldwide.

Offering hope and safe haven to refugees is part of who we are as a country, reads Bidens campaign promise. We cannot mobilize other countries to meet their humanitarian obligations if we are not ourselves upholding our cherished democratic values and firmly rejecting Trumps nativist rhetoric and actions.

The Obama-Biden Administration oversaw a record-breaking number of deportations, something immigration advocates and attorneys have stated is a concern for them as Biden prepares to take office. Already, some immigrant advocates and lawyers have criticized the Biden Administration for selecting Cecilia Muoz as a member of the transition team, and have expressed their hopes that she does not become selected as an overseer of immigration policy. Muoz, who was formally the head of the White House Domestic Policy Council during the Obama years, has been criticized for enabling the thousands of deportations that took place during those eight years.

According to Wong, who was also an advisor to the Obama White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and co-lead the immigration portfolio, the hardline on deportations and enforcement was a strategy calculation for the Obama Administration in order to garner Republican support for comprehensive immigration reform.

In the end, that strategy proved ineffective, Wong says, and instead led to 5.2 million people being deported from the U.S. (The Clinton Administration deported more than 12 million people, and the Bush Administration deported more than 10 million.)

Under Trump, enforcement of deportations expanded from Obamas guidance of prioritizing undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of a felony or were considered a threat to national security and public safety, among other criteria, to include all undocumented immigrants.

Biden will also have to decide what to do about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Though the agency has existed since 2003, it has faced widespread allegations of neglect and human rights violations under the Trump Administration. There are over 130 ICE facilities in the U.S., about 66 of which are run by private contractors, according to immigrant advocacy organization Freedom for Immigrants, which collects data on ICE facilities. A combination of Trumps family separation policy and the number of deaths that have occurred in ICE custodyat least seven children have diedhave fueled calls from immigration activists and some members of congress to shut ICE down.

Biden will also have to balance calls to Abolish ICE with what the Democratic party and voters want to see happen, Wong says.

Though Biden will likely not abolish ICE, he may take steps to end government partnerships with for-profit companies like GEO Group, CoreCivic and LaSalle Corrections which together run dozens of ICE facilities. He may also seek to shorten the length of time for those in detentionparticularly for childrenand improve the quality of health care provided at these facilities, a topic that recently came into the spotlight after a whistleblower accused a doctor at a privately run ICE facility of performing unwanted hysterectomies on detained women.

Read more: The Objective Is to Save Lives. Inside the Effort to Get ICE Detainees Released During the Coronavirus Pandemic

At the end of the day, Sarah Pierce, another policy analyst at MPI, says the next four years may bring a change of pace in changes to immigration policy, as Biden navigates the COVID-19 pandemic and other high-priority domestic issues.

During the Trump Administration, immigration was the top policy priority. They poured everything they had into enacting their agenda, Pierce said during the Nov. 9 webinar. I think under a Biden Administration were about to see the pace of immigration changes slow down significantly. Theres going to be a lot of questions about how much they can accomplish in the first 100 days, and really how much they can accomplish in four years.

Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Write to Jasmine Aguilera at jasmine.aguilera@time.com.

Read more here:
Biden Has Promised to Undo Trump's Immigration Policies. How Much Is He Really Likely to Reform? - TIME