Sunday, January 31, 2021

While the House and Senate Democratic Leadership intend to use the coming budget action as a vehicle for producing coronavirus legislation, the pro-immigrant advocacy community is hoping to use this week's budget action as a vehicle for enacting immigration reform legislation.

​Away from the Capitol Dome, the Biden Administration is expected to issue a number of immigration-related executive actions during the coming week, including actions reversing Trump-era asylum policies, a plan to reunite migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, and a plan "to modernize the U.S. immigration system.'

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

As a technical matter, Wednesday's action by the new president revoked former President Trump's Executive Order 13768 of January 25, 2017 (Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States).  

The order, further, directs the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, and the heads of any other relevant executive departments and agencies (agencies) to undertake a review of any agency actions developed pursuant to the Trump executive order and take action, including issuing revised guidance, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, that advances the policy set forth in the Biden executive order.

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

As a technical matter today's Proclamation terminates the emergency declared in President Trump's Presidential Proclamation 9844, and continued in several subsequent actions, is terminated and that the authorites invoked in that proclamation 

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

In the Memorandum, President Biden asserts, "I have determined that it is in the foreign policy interests of the United States to defer through June 30, 2022, the removal of any Liberian national, or person without nationality who last habitually resided in Liberia, who is present in the United States and who was under a grant of DED as of January 10, 2021. I have also determined that any Liberian national, or person without nationality who last habitually resided in Liberia, who is present in the United States and who was under a grant of DED as of January 10, 2021, should have continued employment authorization through June 30, 2022. ​"

The Deferred Enforced Departure program covers around 4,000 Liberians who have lived in the U.S. for many years and for whom returning would be unsafe due to conditions in their country.  President Trump declined to renew Liberian DED.

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

As a technical matter, Wednesday's action by the new president revoked four different actions taken by President Trump: Executive Order 13780 of March 6, 2017 (Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States); Presidential Proclamation 9645 of September 24, 2017 (Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry Into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats); Presidential Proclamation 9723 of April 10, 2018 (Maintaining Enhanced Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry Into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats); and Presidential Proclamation 9983 of January 31, 2020 (Improving Enhanced Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry Into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats).  ​

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

The new President's actions revoked two Trump-era measures: Executive Order 13880 of July 11, 2019 (Collecting Information About Citizenship Status in Connection With the Decennial Census), and the Presidential Memorandum of July 21, 2020 (Excluding Illegal Aliens From the Apportionment Base Following the 2020 Census).

In the executive order, aimed at the Secretary of Commerce, the official who administers the decennial census, the President ordered that "the Secretary shall use tabulations of population reflecting the whole number of persons whose usual residence was in each State as of the census date, without regard to immigration status, in reports provided to the Governor and officers or public bodies having responsibility for legislative apportionment or districting of each State."

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

​The Presidential Memorandum commends the DACA program, asserting the persons who have been protected by it "were brought to the United States as children, have obeyed the law, and stayed in school or enlisted in the military."   Continuing, it asserts that "DACA reflects a judgment that these immigrants should not be a priority for removal based on humanitarian concerns and other considerations, and that work authorization will enable them to support themselves and their families, and to contribute to our economy, while they remain.