Biden Immigration Policy Imprimis 3-7-25

Biden’s Mixed Immigration Legacy: Border Challenges Overshadowed Modernization Advances December 10, 2024. Policy Beat By Muzaffar Chishti, Kathleen Bush-Joseph, Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, and Madeleine Greene 

However history judges the Biden presidency, immigration will be a critical factor. Joe Biden entered office promising not only to undo what he described as the harsh immigration policies of his predecessor, now President-elect Donald Trump, but also to create new opportunities for millions of long-resident unauthorized immigrants to secure legal status. As Congress continued its three-decade old pattern of inactivity on immigration reform, Biden was unable to deliver on legalization for even small portions of the estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. And the administration’s approach at the U.S.-Mexico border, which experienced record irregular arrivals of asylum seekers and other migrants, was sharply decried by liberals and conservatives alike. Immigrant-rights advocates claimed that Biden’s border policies doubled down on the Trump approach. And conservatives charged the administration’s strategy invited chaos by permitting several million people arriving without authorization to enter the United States.

To be sure, the Biden administration demonstrated a record level of activity on immigration, advancing 605 immigration-related executive actions as of December 6, according to Migration Policy Institute (MPI) calculations—far more than the 472 in Trump’s first term, which was seen as uniquely active on the issue. Through these executive actions, the Biden administration restored legal immigration levels that had fallen due to the COVID-19 pandemic and earlier Trump initiatives, as well as rebuilt refugee resettlement to numbers not seen since the 1990s. The Biden administration was also estimated to have naturalized nearly 3.5 million people, the most in any presidential term; more than doubled the length of work authorizations; and recrafted interior enforcement priorities to target national security and public safety threats, and recent border crossers. Additionally, the administration extended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to 1.7 million potential new beneficiaries (although far fewer received the status), offering them work authorization and protection from deportation. To decrease the pressure of irregular arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border, the administration established new humanitarian pathways and orderly processes for migrants to enter the United States, and built a new network of cooperation with governments across the Americas.   

Despite these developments, the country’s attention throughout Biden’s tenure was focused on the Southwest border, where authorities carried out 8.6 million migrant encounters from January 2021 through October 2024 (many were of repeat crossers). Biden was hounded by a strong public perception that the border was uncontrolled. Even when the administration further narrowed access to asylum at the border in June, the measure was seen as too little, too late.

Although a combination of carrot-and-stick processes and Mexico’s stepped-up enforcement quelled some border pressures, MPI estimates that as of July more than 5.8 million migrants had been paroled in or otherwise allowed entry to pursue asylum applications and other immigration cases. At times of high arrivals, overwhelmed authorities often had to release migrants into the country due to a lack of asylum screening and other processing resources. In recent months, as encounters have decreased, so too have releases.

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/biden-immigration-legacy

Comments

The number of Illegals who entered the US from 2021 to 2024 is estimated at 21 million and 65% or 13.65 million are estimated as employed in US jobs.

WASHINGTON--Today, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that in a single month under President Trump more than 20,000 illegal aliens were arrested. That's a 627% increase in monthly arrests.

While there's no federal mandate for employers to use E-Verify, many states have laws requiring it, particularly for public employers and certain private employers based on size and location. In Georgia, for example, both public and private employers with 11 or more employees must use E-Verify. 

E-Verify requires employers to confirm US citizenship.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader