WASHINGTON: Within few hours of taking office, President Joe Biden undid some of Donald Trump’s most controversial immigration policies and sparked cautious hope that millions living in the shadows could one day get legal status in the US.
Scribbled signatures from his pen, President Biden lifted an entry ban for people from many majority Muslim nations and halted construction of Trump’s border wall with Mexico, heartening immigration defenders left reeling by four years of “America First” nationalism.
Yet advocates see new battles ahead, including whether lawmakers can finally overhaul the nation’s immigration system which has been branded as “broken” with some 11 million undocumented people living in limbo.
These discussions, however, have only begun as the Trump administration has just left the White House.
His so-called “Muslim ban,” which in 2017 targeted citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, ignited international outrage and lead to domestic court rulings against it.
Iraq and Sudan were dropped from the list, but in 2018 the Supreme Court upheld a later version of the ban for the other nations — as well as North Korea and Venezuela.
As part of his first acts, Biden signed new protections for so-called “Dreamers” — immigrants who arrived illegally as children and had been temporarily shielded from deportation by a program Trump tried to dismantle.
In addition, the new president overturned one of his predecessor’s orders pushing aggressive efforts to find and deport unauthorized immigrants, and imposed a 100-day suspension on most deportations.
Immigration advocates erupted in support for Biden’s first orders.
Read more: Biden takes the helm as president: ‘Democracy has prevailed’
