Amid the backdrop of a historically turbulent period of hemispheric and global migration, President Joe Biden has issued more orders on immigration since taking office than Donald Trump did during his entire presidency, according to a new report.
“By taking 535 immigration actions over its first three years, the Biden administration has already outpaced the 472 immigration-related executive actions undertaken in all four years of President Donald Trump’s term,” the Migration Policy Institute said in its study, “Biden at the Three-Year Mark.”
Biden’s moves have been partly responsible for restoring legal immigration to pre-pandemic levels, returning refugee resettlement almost to 1990s numbers, broadening temporary humanitarian protections for some nationalities and limiting enforcement actions to a narrower range of unauthorized immigrants, the study found.
“These changes have fulfilled some of President Joe Biden’s campaign promises, helped bolster the U.S. economy, and reduced fears of seemingly arbitrary enforcement against removable noncitizens.”
“Combined, these changes have fulfilled some of President Joe Biden’s campaign promises, helped bolster the U.S. economy, and reduced fears of seemingly arbitrary enforcement against removable noncitizens,” the report states.
But these and other policy changes also have sparked criticism from those who want more radical measures to curb incursions at the U.S.-Mexico border, where 6.3 million migrant encounters, resulting in 2.4 million admissions, have been documented since 2021. And the criticism isn’t solely from the right, MPI said.
“Even some of Biden’s fellow Democrats have begun advocating for more stringent border control, adding a new dimension to immigration politics in a presidential election year when the issue is sure to be a defining one between the two political parties,” the report says.
The president also has alarmed immigration advocates with some of his actions, including the continued use of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that rapidly expelled asylum seekers, until its expiration in May 2023. Progressives said the decision made Biden’s border stances no different than Trump’s.
Advocates have complained about other White House border measures, including the mandated use of CBP One, a mobile app migrants must use to schedule asylum hearings and other appointments at U.S. ports of entry. The app has been widely criticized as glitchy, for being accessible only in English, Spanish or Haitian Creole, and for being useless to anyone without a cellphone or Wi-Fi signal.
Immigration proponents also have been dismayed by limitations the White House has placed on the nation’s historically open asylum system.
“In May, the administration announced a second batch of carrot-and-stick policies,” the report explains. “The post-Title 42 plan rests on a new Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule, which incentivizes arrivals at ports of entry and disincentivizes irregular crossings by making migrants without a CBP One appointment, ineligible for asylum unless they had applied for and been denied protection in another country, arrived through a parole program, or qualified for an exception under the rule.”
MPI says results of Biden’s immigration policies have been mixed. CPB One usage has led to a four-fold increase in the number of unauthorized migrants processed at ports of entry since 2019. The expansion of temporary parole has eased border pressure by allowing 60,000 Cubans, 112,000 Haitians, 47,000 Nicaraguans and 76,000 Venezuelans to enter the U.S. legally.
But obtaining that status comes with its own set of problems, the report says. “Because of temporary protections, such as parole, extended to hundreds of thousands of arriving migrants, approximately 2.3 million people living in the United States hold liminal legal statuses, a ballooning population in limbo that may prove an enduring legacy of the Biden administration.”
But the number of unauthorized immigrants also has risen, causing a corresponding increase in removal efforts — and expenditures — by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security.
“After Title 42 ended, DHS’s removals and returns ballooned, outpacing numbers in pre-pandemic years. From May through December, DHS carried out more than 470,000 removals or returns, mostly of migrants who crossed the southwest border without authorization,” the report says. “ICE’s detention capacity increased after the end of COVID-19 protocols, with average daily detention rising from 23,000 in fiscal year 2022 to 28,000 in fiscal year 2023.”
In addition, the effects are being felt in cities throughout the nation’s interior, where deficiencies in affordable housing cause shelter crowding, and the added costs of health care, legal services and education burden municipal budgets, the study found.
In response, the administration has attempted to expedite work permits for new arrivals by granting parole and Temporary Protected Status programs, including to up to 472,000 Venezuelans who entered the U.S. before July 31, 2023. The move has created an estimated 698,000 TPS holders nationwide.
The MPI report also cites other initiatives of the Biden administration, including programs for immigrants from Ukraine and Afghanistan, as well as efforts to work with regional partners to slow migration and to accept returning citizens.
“Some, though not most, of the administration’s actions are part of an effort to undo changes introduced during the Trump administration,” the report says. “Since taking office, the Biden administration has rebuilt the refugee resettlement system after admissions hit record lows under Trump.”
That resulted in the resettlement of 25,500 refugees in 2022, against a goal of 125,000, followed by 60,000 admissions in 2023. Refugee admissions are expected to surpass 85,000 this year.
But the 2024 election is expected to exert even more pressure on the president on immigration, regardless of his achievements, the report says.
The administration already is engaged in tense negotiations with Republicans in Congress who want to add strict asylum restrictions to his $110 billion foreign aid package. If a deal is reached, it could weaken Biden’s support from some of his own supporters.
