Biden Pledges To Dismantle Trump’s Sweeping Immigration Changes — But Can He Do That?

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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden

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«If I’m elected president, we’re going to immediately end Trump’s assault on the dignity of immigrant communities. We’re going to restore our moral standing in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers,» Biden said in his acceptance speech at the virtual Democratic National Convention.

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: not another mile of border wall, no more separating families, no more prolonged detentions or deportations of peaceable, hardworking migrants.

Biden also says he would restore the asylum system and support alternatives to immigrant detention, such as case management, that allow an applicant to live and work in the community while their case works its way through the hearing process. Trump has derisively called this «catch and release.»

And Biden would fully reinstate DACA, which allows migrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to live and work without fear of deportation.

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A car with President Trump drives after participating in a ceremony commemorating the 200th mile of border wall at the international border with Mexico in San Luis, Ariz., on June 23.

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President Trump delivers remarks on Sept. 11 in Shanksville, Pa.

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For his part, the president is touting the success of Remain in Mexico, which the administration calls the Migrant Protection Protocols.

«We don’t want ’em here. We want ’em outside,» Trump told cheering supporters in Yuma, Ariz., last month. «We got sued all over the place, and we won. So now they don’t come into the United States. They can wait outside.»

While the president says he has single-handedly restored a broken immigration system, human rights advocates are appalled at what they call the cruelty of his policies. And immigrant advocates say they have high hopes that a new administration would rebuild the immigration system based on «American values.»

«There’s 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 that’s a tall order — and another obstacle Biden would face. 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.

«That isn’t something that’s a light switch. You can’t change culture within an organization that vast overnight,» says Angela Kelley, senior adviser to the American Immigration Lawyers Association. «So I agree that it’s going to be a long, long road.»

For an example of how the Border Patrol is marching lockstep with the White House, look to a video titled «The Gotaway,» posted earlier this month.

CBP produced an ominous, fictionalized video on the Border Patrol’s YouTube channel that depicts a Latino migrant who had just escaped from agents, attacking and knifing a man in a dark alley. The video was released at a time when Trump has been stoking fears about violent immigrants at his campaign rallies.

NPR inquired why the video was made and why it was removed a week later before being re-posted. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott said in a statement that the video was produced «to enhance awareness that effective border security helps keep all Americans safe,» and it was briefly pulled because they misused copyrighted materials.

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.

«If Biden is elected and his administration starts rescinding executive actions that Trump had firm legal authority to do, groups like us will sue. That is a fact,» says R.J. Hauman, head of government relations at the Federation for American Immigration Reform. «We did so under President Obama, and we’ll do so again.»

Finally, there’s the pandemic. An NPR/Ipsos poll shows that a majority of Americans support Trump’s decision to shut the nation’s borders to all types of immigrants to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Biden has not said if he would reverse that order to reopen the borders and jump-start the asylum process, which has been suspended. So it’s anybody’s guess when the virus will subside and the nation can welcome immigrants again.

• Immigration law
• 2020 presidential election
• Immigration