(Feb. 2) Watch live as President Joe Biden signs a trio of executive orders on Tuesday to reverse Donald Trump’s crackdown on asylum seekers and refugees, continuing his push to loosen his predecessor’s strict immigration policies.
Biden will direct the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a broad review of asylum programs that were targeted by the Trump administration, asking his administration to rescind proclamations, rules, and guidance documents intended to curb the entry of migrants seeking humanitarian protection in the U.S.
In a second executive order, Biden is ordering all federal agencies to conduct a review of policies and regulations that created barriers to legal immigration to the U.S. The order also re-establishes a White House task force dedicated to ensuring the legal immigration system works fairly and efficiently.
The president’s third order will create a new task force charged with trying to reunite children who were forcibly separated from their guardians at the Mexico border under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration enforcement policies. First lady Jill Biden is expected to serve on the task force.
White House officials said Biden’s orders were designed to reverse policies they described as cruel and wasteful, while promoting inclusion and the integration of immigrants. The officials described the planned executive orders before their signing on the condition of anonymity.
As part of the push, Biden is ordering Homeland Security to review the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, which forced asylum seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico while U.S. courts processed their claims, which could take months or years.
Immigrant-rights advocates said the measures put Central Americans fleeing persecution in peril by requiring them to stay in places where they could still face danger. Another set of Trump-era agreements that allowed the U.S. to send back asylum seekers who did not first seek relief in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala will also be placed under review, officials said.
Trump administration officials defended the policies, which were enacted in 2019, as a means to stop a surge of migration from Central America. At the time, officials accused migrants seeking economic opportunity of taking advantage of so-called loopholes in the asylum system to gain entry into the U.S. Under the previous system, asylum applicants usually would be allowed into the country while their cases were processed in the courts.
Biden will also begin the process rescinding the Trump administration’s public charge rule, which makes it easier to refuse entry to potential immigrants on the grounds they could become dependent on government assistance.
The child separation task force -- which will be chaired by the Homeland Security secretary and include leaders of the State Department and Department of Health and Human Services -- will seek not only to identify children who were separated fr
