WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES. – Joe Biden’s rise to power in the United States raises expectations and also distrust among immigrants, who, after four years of restrictive policies Donald Trumpbut at the same time, they don’t forget the harsh measures taken while he was vice president under the Barack Obama administration.
Biden promised the regularization of 11 million undocumented migrants living in the country and the reinstallation of protection systems, such as the one that protects the so-called “dreamers”, young people who arrived in the country as minors with their parents, from deportation. .
Among them are many young Hondurans enrolled in the DACA program.
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“I’m not a big fan of Biden, but I’m optimistic this government will try to work with us,” Gabriela Hernández, a 22-year-old “dreamer” who came with her mother from El Salvador when she was five, told me. AFP. year.
In their situation, there are about 700,000 young people who were undocumented all their lives until the president in 2012 Democrat Barack Obama It granted them by decree the status of deferred action for the protection of arrivals in children (DACA).
The “dreamers” lived in limbo during Trump’s presidency, who decided to cancel these protections and started a long legal battle.
Any permanent changes that Biden wants to make will have to go through Congress.
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This Tuesday January 5th The two pending seats in Georgia will be determined in the second round, where it will be announced who will have the majority in the Senate, as the Senate is controlled by Republicans, while the House is in the hands of Democrats.
With or without a like-minded congress, the task is enormous, given that during the Trump administration the changes in the immigration policy they took place at a “frantic and unprecedented pace,” said the Migration Policy Institute (MPI).
According to this study center, the more than 400 executive orders signed by the outgoing president sought “to dismantle and methodically rebuild the system based on a global view of immigration as a threat.”
For Gabriela, her current immigration status remains a “patch” solution and is like “putting an umbrella over a population of millions” in relation to the total number of undocumented immigrants.
Jorge Benítez, who is also a “dreamer”, still harbores “fear”. During the Obama administration, in which Biden was vice president, there was a record of deportations.
A reluctance that also cherishes William Martínez, who came with his family from El Salvador after the country was devastated by an earthquake in 2001. He is protected from deportation by the Temporary Protection Statute (TPS), a mechanism created for foreigners whose lands have been hit by natural disasters or political instability.
Trump also sought to lift these protections, a fight that continues in court.
William, 28, expects “nothing” from Biden. He claims any solution will come from a bipartisan agreement, so he plans to campaign in Georgia to make sure Democrats control the senate.
One of the main issues is asylum seekers at the Mexican border, but Biden’s adviser, Juan González, has already warned CNN that “there will be no immediate changes.”