More than two dozen immigrant rights organizations are urging President Biden to take a series of executive actions to deliver “a more fair, humane, and functional immigration system,” including extending deportation relief, an end to anti-asylum policies, and expanding legal assistance to people in immigration court. The 26 organizations have released the 2022 blueprint ahead of the president’s State of the Union address, and as the Build Back Better plan—which featured key pro-immigrant provisions—has stalled.
“The Biden-Harris administration must not relent and instead forge ahead with aggressive actions that both the American electorate and immigrant communities support and want to see come to fruition,” Immigration Hub executive director Sergio Gonzales said in a statement received by Daily Kos.
Among the key recommendations made by the organizations in “A Blueprint for the Biden-Harris administration” are actions to keep families together, including designating and re-designating countries for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), continuing to take action to strengthen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, extending deportation relief to essential workers, and eliminating bureaucratic red tape clogging up the immigration backlog.
Organizations also urge executive actions targeting the mass detention and deportation machine, including phasing out costly and inhumane Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities and formally ending racist programs that allow local law enforcement to act as immigration agents. Despite a campaign pledge to “stop corporations from profiteering off of incarceration,” private prison profiteer GEO Group could be set to open a massive immigration detention facility in Georgia, “creating one of the largest of its kind in the nation,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported earlier this month.
The blueprint also urges the administration to “commit to providing legal counsel at no cost to every pro se individual and all vulnerable people, including unaccompanied children, people with a mental disability, and others who need legal support to ensure a fair hearing.” Unlike in the criminal court system, people in immigration court are not provided an attorney if they can’t afford one.
The organizations said that the Biden administration has already terminated or revoked more than 200 anti-immigrant policies issued by the previous administration while implementing dozens of pro-immigrant actions, including rescinding the racist Muslim ban and protecting nearly half a million people through existing TPS and DED designations.
Other beneficial actions include reinstatement of an Obama-era program that more safely reunites Central American children with families in the U.S., little-known but crucial policy benefitting LGBT refugees and asylum-seekers, an initiative to return deported U.S. military service members and family members, reversing the refugee admissions cap from a historic low of 15,000 people to 125,000 people for the 2022 fiscal year, and the historic evacuation and resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghan families.
But it also continues to enforce Stephen Miller’s Title 42 policy that has walled off the U.S. asylum system to Black immigrants in particular, “despite condemnation from human rights groups and public health professionals,” the report said. While the Biden administration faced a court order when it came to a second anti-asylum policy, Remain in Mexico, the decision to expand the program beyond what the court required as the Biden administration’s alone.
“The report shows that although President Biden’s administration has advanced necessary reforms, much more remains to be done to reverse the cruel policies that were created with the sole intent of targeting and discriminating against Black and Brown migrants,” Haitian Bridge Alliance executive director Guerline Jozef said. The organization has been among the advocates supporting an effort from a coalition of congressional Democrats urging the president to address anti-Blackness in the U.S. immigration system.
“It is also worth noting that in one year, using Title 42, the Biden-Harris administration has deported almost the same number of people to Haiti, including pregnant women and children, as the last three presidents combined,” Jozef continued. “Instead of sending the most vulnerable to lethal conditions, among other steps mentioned in the report, the Biden-Harris administration must take further action to protect Black migrants' lives, namely through designating Cameroon for temporary protected status.”
Despite President Biden raising the refugee admissions cap from a historic low of 15,000 to 62,500 for the 2021 fiscal year after taking office, just 7,500 refugees were actually admitted during that time. “Understandably, four years of the Trump administration’s assault on the refugee program coupled with pandemic challenges have hamstrung federal rebuilding efforts,” Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service president Krish O’Mara Vignarajah said at the time. Groups in the 2022 report urged the administration to commit to resettling 125,000 people.
The organizations said the Biden administration must address these important issues as it also continues the effort to permanently protect families through legislation. Ultimately, only Congress can provide a pathway to citizenship.
“At a time when we are seeing the greatest need for displacement and refugee assistance in recorded history because of war, persecution, and famine, the need for a fully supported resettlement infrastructure is more evident than ever,” said Church World Service director of policy and advocacy Meredith Owen. “President Biden has the power to address many pressing needs for this historically bipartisan program, he only needs the will and investment to do so.” Read the full 2022 immigration report here.
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