Biden's immigration promises: which ones the president kept in 2021

US President Joe Biden promised to create a fair, orderly and humane immigration system. Did Biden keep his immigration promises? The Hill.

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Biden program for refugees

It raised the refugee admission limit for fiscal year 2021 from 15 to 000, but was able to admit only 62 refugees by the end of the fiscal year—the lowest number in the program's history.

100-day moratorium on deportation

Biden, as promised, imposed a 100-day moratorium on deportations. But a federal judge lifted the moratorium because it violates INA section 1231(a)(1)(A). This section provides that the alien "shall be removed" from the United States within 90 days of the final decision of the court to remove him.

Crisis at Immigration Court

When Biden took office, more than 1,29 million cases were waiting in immigration courts. As of the end of November 2021, there were 1,56 million immigration cases pending, with an average wait of 905 days for a hearing. In fiscal year 2022 (beginning October 1, 2021), there were 143 new cases in immigration courts, with only 803 cases completed during that period.

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Over 40% of asylum applications made after October 2000 are still pending. During this period, about 1,6 million applications were filed, 667 of which have not yet been heard. The current waiting time for an asylum case is 229 days on average (nearly four and a half years).

Stay in Mexico

This program was created by the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump. It requires asylum applicants who illegally crossed the southern border of the United States, rather than appear at the checkpoint, to return to Mexico and await their case outside the United States.

Biden's head of the Department of Homeland Security ended the program with a special memorandum. However, the judge later ruled that the cancellation of the program was procedurally illegal. Since then, Biden has made changes to the program to make it safer and ensure that the rights of foreigners are protected. But despite the election promise, the president could not cancel the program.

Enforcement Policy

Trump was committed to the policy of deporting all illegal immigrants. Biden limited the application of deportation to illegal immigrants who pose (1) a threat to national security; (2) a threat to public safety or (3) a threat to border security. According to a Washington Post article, this severely curtailed ICE's enforcement efforts to the point that the agency's 6000 officers averaged only 1-2 arrests per month.

Central American Minors (CAM)

Under the CAM program, eligible parents in the United States can request that their children in Central America be considered for refugee status or exempted from deportation (parole) if they are already in the United States and are not eligible for refugee status.

The Trump administration ended the CAM program in fiscal year 2018. Biden restarted it but did little to make it accessible to more kids.

Illegal border crossings

CBP recorded 1,7 million illegal border crossings in fiscal 2021.

This was the highest number of illegal crossings recorded in any fiscal year since the government began tracking these statistics in 1960.

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Rather than taking immediate action to end the crisis, Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the administration's long-term efforts to persuade Mexico and Central America to address the root causes of people leaving their homes.

This has been tried before. It didn't work, and this time there is no reason to expect it to work.

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