Biden's immigration reforms: help is on the way!
Biden’s Immigration Plans: Relief is on the Way for Immigrants, their Employers, and economically struggling Communities that could benefit from Immigrants
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, despite the dire situation with the pandemic and the condition of the economy, those of us who value the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law, who respect our fellow citizens of all races and ethnic origins as equals, and who value and acknowledge the contributions of immigrants to the success of our country, we are thankful for the outcome of the free and fair election that just concluded and resulted in the election of Joe Biden as the president-elect, who will take office on January 20, 2021.
President-Elect Biden announced, in his election campaign platform, ambitious plans to repeal President Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and to pursue far-reaching reforms of the immigration system. It should be noted upfront, that President-Elect Biden’s ability to deliver on his plans to reform the immigration system depends on the passage of new legislation through Congress. That, in turn, depends on whether the Democrats’ candidates manage to win in the run-off election in Georgia, which will take place on January 5, 2021, and deliver the Democratic Party a majority in the U.S. Senate. Otherwise, if the Republicans continue to control the Senate, they will block some, if not all, immigration proposals from the Democrats.
However, regardless of what happens in Congress, Joe Biden has announced that, as soon as he takes office, he will immediately repeal all of President Trump’s executive orders that have imposed immigration bans (the Immigrant Ban from April 20, 2020, the Non-Immigrant Visa Ban from June 22, 2020, the earlier “Security/Muslim” Immigration Ban from March 6, 2017, expanded on January 31, 2020), and the Trump Administration’s changes to the public charge rule. However, as President, Biden will probably not repeal until later the travel bans against countries and regions with high rates of COVID-19 infections, at least, not until those countries bring their infection rates to some lower levels. Given that Biden’s stated highest priority is to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control, removing these bans immediately would be widely viewed as counterproductive, while the banned countries continue to have infection rates that are out of control.
President-Elect Biden has ambitious plans to reform the immigration system that are intended to be beneficial to immigrants, U.S. employers, and struggling communities that could benefit from businesses established by foreign investors. Those proposals include, among other things, the following:
Remedies for Immigrants already present in the U.S. without valid status
- Creating a path to legalization for young people in the U.S. without legal status (including and going beyond those previously approved for DACA), starting with renewal of DACA, and including protection from deportation for their parents.
- Creating a path to legalization for people in the U.S. without legal status, who arrived in the U.S. as adults.
- Reconsideration and Reinstatement of TPS for many previously qualified countries.
- Focusing immigration enforcement and deportation on those illegal immigrants who have a criminal history, not on otherwise law-abiding immigrants.
Improvements to the Employment-Based Immigration System
- Increasing the quota for employment-based immigrants during times of economic growth and low unemployment rates, but decreasing the quota during economic downturns when there is a higher unemployment rate, and maintaining the prevailing wage system.
- Offering permanent residence to graduates of Ph.D. programs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).
- Offering economically depressed communities the opportunity to petition, under an additional quota, for workers in shortage fields that the local communities need, e.g., doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to work in medically underserved communities. Those who immigrate in this category would be required to live and work in their field in that community for a certain number of years.
- Simplifying the relicensing in the U.S. of licensed professionals from other countries.
- Removing the per-country immigration limits.
While the EB-5 program is not addressed in Biden’s proposed reforms, supporters of the EB-5 program in Congress will likely take the opportunity to increase the quota for the EB-5 program, as well. Chinese and Vietnamese investors would welcome the removal of the per-country limit in the EB-5 program in order to alleviate their quota backlog waiting times, but EB-5 investors from all countries will hope for an increase to the EB-5 quota because the abolition of the per-country limit would mean that the large number of Chinese and Vietnamese EB-5 investors with older priority dates would swamp the worldwide quota if the quota is not increased.
Improvements to the Temporary Work Visa System
- Increasing the quota for temporary work visas for H-1B high-skilled workers during times of economic growth and low unemployment rates, but decreasing the quota during economic downturns when there is a higher unemployment rate.
- Reforming the H-2B visa system for seasonal low-skilled workers in industries that depend on seasonal workers to make the system easier for employers in these industries to obtain the seasonal workers that they need.
Improvements to the Family-Based Immigration System
- Offering temporary non-immigrant visas to approved beneficiaries of family-based immigration petitions so that they can move to the U.S. to await the issuance of their green card.
- Remove the quota and quota-backlog waiting time for the spouse and underage children of permanent residents.
- Enable parents of U.S. citizens to bring any underage children with them when they immigrate.
Naturalization
- Stopping the Trump Administration’s policy of using the naturalization process to find ways to deny and deport the applicant in order to make permanent residents afraid to apply.
- Stopping the Trump Administration’s policy of increasing the application fees to deter permanent residents from applying.
Once in office, President-Elect Biden will quickly repeal Trump’s anti-immigrant executive orders and policies, but his ambitious legislative agenda will depend on whether the Democrats manage to win the upcoming runoff election in Georgia. Everyone is on the edge of their seat to see how that election will turn out.
If you are interested to read the full explanation of Biden's immigration policy agenda, please click here.