Joe Biden's immigration policy is primarily based on reversing many of the immigration policies of the previous Trump administration. During his first day in office, Biden reversed many of Trump's policies on immigration, such as halting the construction of the Mexican border wall, ending Trump's travel ban restricting travel from 14 countries, and an executive order to reaffirm protections for DACA recipients. The Biden administration and Department of Homeland Security, under leadership of Alejandro Mayorkas, dramatically reined in deportation practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), prioritizing national security and violent crime concerns over petty and nonviolent offenses. However, Biden has also faced criticism for extending Title 42, a Trump administration border restriction that arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as restarting the use of expediting families in Central America, which can cause families to be sent back in weeks, compared to years for an average immigration case. In the fiscal year 2021, the US Border Patrol confirmed more than 1.6 million encounters with migrants along the US-Mexico border, more than quadruple the number in the previous fiscal year and the largest annual total on record. In January 2023, Biden announced a program to strengthen the admission of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, while at the same time his administration will crack down on those who fail to use the plan's legal pathway and strengthen border security. In May 2023, the Biden Administration approved sending 1,500 more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border following Title 42's expiration.
On June 23, 2023, the U.S. Supreme ruled that a Biden Administration immigration policy which involves the deportation of people deemed public safety threats or who were picked up at the border could be enforced. The ruling also upheld the prosecution of people who encourage illegal immigration.
Background
Over 86 million people have immigrated to the U.S. legally since 1783, making immigrants a foundation to U.S. foreign policy. Immigration policies have changed from president to president, although most policies have closely aligned towards Democratic and Republican party values, depending on the president's associated political party.
Immigration to the United States is the international movement of non-U.S. nationals in order to reside permanently in the country. Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of U.S. history.
In absolute numbers, the United States has a larger immigrant population than any other country, with 47 million immigrants as of 2015. This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide and 14.4% of the U.S. population. Some other countries have larger proportions of immigrants, such as Switzerland with 24.9% and Canada with 21.9%.
Immigration policy
Revocation of prior administration policies
On January 20, 2021, soon after his inauguration, Biden halted the construction of Trump's Mexican border wall, ending the national emergency declared by the Trump administration in February 2019.
Biden also ended the Trump travel ban, a series of three executive orders imposed by Donald Trump on 14 countries, most of them Muslim, in January 2017.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
Biden also reaffirmed protections to DACA recipients and urged Congress to enact permanent protections for the 700,000 undocumented immigrants benefited by the policy.
Deferred Enforced Departure
The same day, Biden sent a memorandum to the Department of State reinstating Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Liberians, deferring the deportation of any "person without nationality who last habitually resided in Liberia, who is present in the United States and who was under a grant of DED as of January 10, 2021" until June 30, 2022.
Deportations
The administration also issued a pause on deportations from the Department of Homeland Security for the first 100 days of Biden's presidency.
On January 22, 2021, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration on the grounds of violating Biden's written pledge to cooperatively work with the State of Texas.
On January 26, 2021, federal judge Drew B. Tipton blocked the Biden administration's 100-day deportation memorandum, citing that the state of Texas would indeed "suffer imminent and irreparable harm" and the restraining order requested by Paxton would not harm the administration nor the public.