According to a top White House official, President Biden plans to repeal the strict legal immigration limits that former President Donald Trump said were necessary to protect American workers during the economic recession caused by the coronavirus.
Mr. Biden plans to sign an executive order to revoke the proclamation that suspended certain immigrant and work visas, Esther Olavarria told US mayors over the weekend, according to a recording of the virtual meeting shared with CBS News. Olavarria is deputy director of the White House Internal Policy Council and one of the president’s chief immigration advisers.
The impending order, Olavarria said, “would revoke the Trump proclamations that barred the admission of immigrants and non-immigrants who were seen either as a financial burden on our health care system or a risk to US labor markets.”
“This was policy that went beyond the decades, and actually centuries, of contributions that immigrants have made to our economy, to our society, to our culture,” Olavarria said at the 89th winter meeting of the US Mayors Conference. “So we would withdraw that policy and return to a country that welcomes immigrants and recognizes their contributions.”
It is unclear when Mr Biden plans to sign the proclamation, but his plans to issue several immigration orders on Friday are delayed. The White House did not comment.
Evan Vucci / AP
Olavarria’s comments are the first indication of the Biden government’s views on visa limits. During the campaign and transition, Mr. Biden did not comment on the policy, nor did his advisers promise to withdraw it.
Less than a month before Mr. Biden took office, Mr. Trump ordered a three-month extension of the restrictions, which were first introduced in April 2020 as a ban on some potential immigrants and extended in June to also suspend several temporary work visas, such as the H-1B program.
Mr. Trump’s proclamation, which is currently due to expire on March 31, bans the issuance of some immigrant visas for people seeking to move to the US permanently through green card requests submitted by their US relatives or potential employers.
Spouses and children aged 21 or younger of US citizens are not subject to the visa limits, which are also an exception for some health workers fighting the pandemic, as well as wealthy immigrants who agree to invest more than $ 1 million in US projects.
Mr Trump’s proclamation also froze the diversity visa lottery, a program that moves people from under-represented countries, many of them in Africa, to the US. In September, a federal judge ordered the government to issue visas to more than 9,000 potential immigrants who won the lottery last year, but entry into the US remains under the order.
The restrictions have also halted the issuance of several temporary visas used by people to work in the US, including the H-1B program popular in the engineering sector and H-2B visas for non-agricultural seasonal workers. J-1 visas for cultural exchange for au pairs and other temporary workers; visas for spouses of H-1B and H-2B holders; and L visas for companies to move workers to the US are also limited.
The government is currently banned from applying visa limits to employees sponsored by several major US companies due to a court ruling in October.
Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst for the impartial Migration Policy Institute, said the visa restrictions in Mr. Trump’s pandemic era have had “some lasting effect” because they were enacted on economic grounds. While she believes the limits will not benefit American workers, Pierce predicted that lifting them will spark some backlash.
Convincing some of the US population to lift restrictions will not be an easy task, Pierce said, citing the current 6.7% unemployment rate.
“The economic crisis is still here and it is a huge problem for the United States,” Pierce told CBS News. “Biden will have to give reasons why he believes it is right to reverse these proclamations, despite their perceived benefits to the US economy.”
Pierce’s group estimates that between April and November 2020, more than 8,000 green card requests were blocked due to Mr Trump’s restrictions.
Olavarria said Mr. Biden will also withdraw a proclamation issued by Mr. Trump in October 2019 to allow the government to reject visa applications from immigrants, which it determines will not be able to obtain a Pay health insurance or cover medical expenses in the US.
According to a review of anticipated executive actions obtained by CBS News, Mr. Biden plans to sign an additional directive instructing officials to review the “ public charges ” rules that allow consular and immigration officials to apply for green card and visa. to refuse from applicants who are deemed to trust or are at risk of relying on public assistance, such as food stamps.