President Biden is set to sign a series of executive actions on Tuesday to begin to reunite migrant children separated from their parents after crossing the U.S. border, take steps to restore the asylum system, and review the Trump administration's changes for the legal immigration system.
One of the actions creates a task force to find ways to reunite children in the United States with their parents, deported without them — a job made challenging by a lack of records.
A second order looks at how to address the surge of migrants seeking asylum in the United States in recent years, and will look at how to replace the Migrant Protection Protocols program — what former President Trump referred to as "Remain in Mexico."
The third order requires agencies to do a "top-to-bottom review of recent regulations, policies and guidance that have set up barriers to our legal immigration system." The first one to go: Trump's "public charge" rule, which prevented immigrants from getting permanent resident or "green card" status if they had or were likely to require public benefits such as housing subsidies. This action in particular makes clear that rolling back former President Trump's hardline immigration measures will not happen overnight, as rescinding an agency regulation like public charge will require complying with the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act—disappointing news for those facing the onerous Form I-944 and its attendant document demands.
We will update this page with further details as the Executive Orders are unveiled.