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Is it realistic for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to promise to dismantle the changes President Trump has made to the American immigration system if he wins the White House in November?

It may be, and Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLUs Immigrants Rights Project thinks it should be done.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, the Trump administration has undertaken more than 400 executive actions on immigration. They include:

Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute says, I dont think its realistic that Biden in four years could unroll everything that Trump did. Because of the intense volume and pace of changes the Trump administration enacted while in office, even if we have a new administration, Trump will continue to have had an impact on immigration for years to come.

Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLUs Immigrants Rights Project says, What the administration has sought to do is to simply turn off immigration and to do it unilaterally by presidential edict, without the approval of Congress or the consent of the American people. That project should be reversed.

Thats exactly what Biden pledges to do.His position paper on immigration 22 pages long seeks to roll back Trumps accomplishments and reenact Obama-era policies.

Biden pledges, If Im elected president, were going to immediately end Trumps assault on the dignity of immigrant communities. Were going to restore our moral standing in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum-seekers.

The former vice president has an exhaustive to-do list. Within his first 100 days, Biden says he would implement a wide range of policies:

However, if Biden is elected, he would face a host of obstacles that could slow his immigration counter-revolution.

1. Theres the specter of renewed chaos at the Southern border. Last year, groups as large as 1,000 Central Americans at a time waded across the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas, to request asylum. The Border Patrol was overwhelmed and ended up detaining families in primitive, unsanitary conditions. Immigration hawks are wary that Biden would throw open the gates again.

Federal border officials are worried about what would happen if Biden cancels bilateral agreements with Mexico that have dramatically slowed the migrant flow.

Ron Vitiello, former deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection says, If Mexico right now decided they werent going to continue to help us, people would start coming through like we saw in the caravans two springs ago. Theres no reason that it wouldnt come back as bad as it was.

Some 700 migrants languish in filthy tents pitched in a public park amid mud, rats, and clouds of mosquitoes. The encampment is in Matamoros, just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. Theyre seeking asylum in the U.S. but are stuck there under a Trump initiative known as Remain in Mexico.

Theres no doubt about it, this is a monumental challenge, says Heidi Altman, director of policy for the National Immigrant Justice Center. That means a complete and utter reorientation of the culture of the agencies that administer immigration law and policy in the United States.

But thats a tall order and another obstacle Biden would face.

2. Immigration agents have enjoyed extraordinary support from the White House over the past 45 months. The Trump administration has bragged about unshackling them to let them do their jobs more aggressively.

Angela Kelley, senior adviser to the American Immigration Lawyers Association stresses, That isnt something thats a light switch. You cant change the culture within an organization that vast overnight. So I agree that its going to be a long, long road.

A Biden presidency also would likely find itself skirmishing with conservative lawyers the way the Trump administration has been tied up in federal courts fighting immigrant advocates.

3. Groups will sue. The simple fact is if Biden is elected and his administration starts rescinding executive actions that Trump had firm legal authority to do, groups will sue. R.J. Hauman, head of government relations at the Federation for American Immigration Reform confirmed this. It was something they did under Obama.

4. The pandemic.Biden has not said if he would reverse that order to reopen the borders and jump-start the asylum process, which has been suspended. According to an NPR/Ipsos poll the majority of Americans support Trumps decision to shut the nations borders to all types of immigrants to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

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Biden promises to overturn Trump's sweeping immigration policies - NYCaribNews