Biden Pledged to Reinstate DACA, but What's the Catch?

By Tiziana Celine First Posted: Nov 12, 2020 12:15 PM EST

Former vice president Joe Biden's incoming administration could easily reverse an array of the immigration policies of President Donald Trump, many of which remain among his administration's most controversial initiatives.

Biden could reverse several guidelines using the same method Trump used to enforce them. However, some would need more than a statement of policy, experts claim.

Other recent revisions to the U.S. immigration system can take months, if not years, to unwind. And analysts say that if Republicans maintain control of the Senate, Biden's capacity to reshape the country's immigration system would be sharply reduced.

According to Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., the Trump administration had taken more than 400 executive orders, cutting the flow of legal immigrants to a fraction of what it was before he took office.

New 'hope' for immigrants

Around one-third of the nation's 11 million undocumented population are dreamers. But according to the National Immigration Forum, an immigration advocacy organization, only a small fraction of them are covered under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA.

Though they are not entitled to vote, many DACA recipients find ways before the election to harness their political influence.

"It's difficult because when you don't have DACA, you can't get hired anywhere. You can contract and do other things, but you can't actually have a job," said Rosa Vazquez, 22, an undocumented student from California who graduated from Harvard's government program in May.

Monica Sibri, 28, a Dreamer who doesn't have DACA, told NBC that Biden's victory is a result of the "direct work and sacrifices of communities that have been "terrorized for four years."

"But at the same time, we are not oblivious to the fact that his presidency comes from the times of having a 'deporter in chief'," she said.

Sibri is referring to the criticism faced by former president Barack Obama when removals of noncitizens increased dramatically under his administration. At the time, Biden was the vice president.

What's the catch? It will all take time

Almost every major policy shift under Trump is in court and may attempt to disengage, including executive power defense considerations. Other reversals will be subject to time-consuming standardized rulemaking procedures.

Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School, claims that Biden will travel carefully to an asylum to avoid setting off a new wave of immigrants and says that "procedural and practical challenges" will be met with other reforms.

Take the "public fee" clause, which disqualifies more citizens if they depend on green cards' government benefits. Biden wants it reversed, but the thorough, rules-making exercise will have to go through.

Trump was supported by a federal appeals court to end humanitarian safeguards that have permitted hundreds of thousands of people to stay in the United States from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Sudan. Biden only notes that he will order an immediate probe and review of "Temporary Protected Status."

Yale-Loehr, a powerful opponent of Trump's policies, said it "will take four years to reverse all the harm done by the Trump administration," although Biden discusses the pandemic and other issues.

Protecting DACA is not the ceiling

Pierce said during a conference with reporters on Monday, per NPR, that the best move would be those that can be reversed, such as an executive order, in one administrative action.

"But [these] don't come with heavy logistical challenges," she said.

The policies usually ban people from 13 countries. Many of those are from the majority Muslim populations. However, these Trump policies could be reversed relatively quickly.

It is also expected that the Biden administration will expand DACA, the Obama-era program that protects immigrants who were unlawfully brought to the country as children from deportation.

Pierce said DACA is likely to be completely restored by the Biden administration, encouraging applications from tens of thousands of immigrants who have become eligible after the Trump administration attempted to end the program in 2017.

A challenging situation at the U.S.-Mexico border

Many of the reforms to immigration policy by the Trump administration were enforced by legislation, and could take longer to reverse, including the "public fee" provision that allows the government to refuse immigrants who are deemed likely to use public benefits green cards.

The next president will also face a tough situation on the U.S.-Mexico border.

During the campaign, Biden said he would like to loosen the Trump administration's asylum limits for migrants fleeing gangs and domestic violence. But it is unclear how well the new administration would handle a crucial part of those limitations in the Migrant Protection Protocols.

In dangerous Mexican border cities, the policy has forced more than 60,000 migrants to wait for their day in U.S. immigration courts.

Technically, with the stroke of a pen, the Biden administration could terminate stay in Mexico, but the logistics of what will happen next are more complicated.

"They really are in a difficult situation politically," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for lower levels of immigration.