The victory of President-elect Biden is likely to bring major changes to U.S. immigration policy in 2021. In addition to undoing many of the Trump Administration policies, President-elect Biden will likely pass reforms regarding high-skilled immigration, family reunification, and asylum and refugee admittances.
Undoing the Trump Administration Policies
U.S. immigration policy under the Trump Administration has been interesting. President Trump supported building (or expanding) a border wall, prohibiting asylum and refugee applicants, halving legal immigration, and enacted a virtual ban on almost all legal immigration during the pandemic. A major effect of the pandemic-related immigration ban was to prevent spouse and family visas from being processed.
However, the Trump Administration, like others before it, was unable to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Most of the changes were enacted via executive order. Accordingly, when Biden assumes the presidency, he can undo most of President Trump’s immigration policies with a stroke of his pen.
Biden Administration Immigration Priorities
According to a study conducted by the National Foundation for American Policy, it is expected that Trump Administration policies will reduce immigration by 49% by 2021. These reductions will correlate with reduced economic and job growth. Approximately 30 out of 40 finalists for the 2016 Intel Science Talent Search were children born to parents who worked in the United States on H1-B visas. Restricting H1-B and other work visas excludes future entrepreneurs, doctors, and scientists and pushes these talented individuals to other countries.
Many experts predict the Biden Administration will take or support the following actions:
- Reverse the Travel Ban,
- Reverse the Immigration Ban (which is already subject to a federal injunction),
- Reinstate the DACA Program (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals),
- Reverse the ban on international students ( a Trump rule that prohibited Chinese students from studying in the U.S.),
- Withdraw Public Charge rule (admittance could be denied if the government determines that an individual may rely on federal support services),
- Withdraw guidance memorandums regarding the interpretation of precedent for USCIS cases (restricted immigration judges from considering precedential cases),
- Review and withdraw the rule that would replace the lottery system with a highest-to-lowest salary for admittance as this could exclude young technology students,
- Support HR 6 (which would provide relief to DACA and TPS beneficiaries),
- Immigration reform to the immigration review and admission systems, and
- Support eliminating the Per Country Quota – The Fairness in High Skilled Immigration Act (would reform the immigration system to remove country-based quotas to focus on applicants’ skills).
The Georgia special election results will likely temper any actions taken by the Biden Administration. If Democrats pick up two Senate seats, then President-elect Biden will have a slim majority to pass legislation. If Republicans retain one or both seats, Biden may not push immigration reform through Congress and instead rely on executive order and agency rules.
