RUTHFULLY YOURS

The White House came out of the gate in January ready to wipe away Trump-era and decades-old policies.    Biden suspended border wall construction, paused most deportations for 100 days, stopped forcing asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims were being processed, and scrapped bilateral agreements that allowed the United States to send asylum-seekers to Central American countries.

But Biden was unable to avoid a border surge that began brewing at the end of former President Donald Trump’s term. The number of people encountered attempting to come across the border illegally had climbed from 17,000 in April 2020 to 78,000 in January. By March, more than 172,000 people were coming across the border. Federal law enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border stopped 178,622 people trying to enter the country illegally in April, the highest amount in more than two decades.

Stop border wall construction

Biden vowed in August 2020 not to install “another foot of wall.” He followed through and suspended all construction in January.

In January, he ordered a review of all border wall contracts, including $10.5 billion that was funded through money that Trump diverted from the Pentagon and the Treasury Department. In April, the Pentagon ordered that all unspent money be returned, though most of it had already been spent.

The Trump administration completed 450 miles of border fence in all four southern border states, though much of it replaced shorter fences or was secondary fencing that ran parallel with the main wall. The $4 billion in funding that Congress specifically approved for the border wall, as well as technology, is still being reviewed. That money will likely prove harder to block because lawmakers previously directed it to be used for that purpose.

Restore asylum

Restoring U.S. asylum pathways was a priority for Biden, but to date, he has little to show for it. In March 2020, the Trump administration began to turn away anyone who came across the southern border, including asylum-seekers. While hundreds of miles of border wall are meant to prevent people from coming into the U.S., hundreds of thousands of people each year successfully get across through unfenced areas.

Before the coronavirus pandemic began, adults caught at the border would be taken into custody and possibly referred for prosecution as illegal entry is a crime. However, the government did not want to hold immigrants in small spaces in the midst of a public health nightmare, so it opted to push virtually all children, adults, and families out of the country. Biden in January ordered a review of the immediate expulsion policy, but he has not rescinded it, leaving families and adults unprotected from immediate expulsion at the border. Biden has stopped turning away children, which fueled a record-high number of children arriving at the border in March.

Reunite migrant families separated by Trump

Biden vowed in October 2020 to reunite migrant families that were separated at the border under Trump-era rules and had yet to be reunified. He has reunited four of more than 500 families.

As the result of a federal lawsuit, the Trump administration was ordered to reunite children and had done so with the large majority. Exactly 545 families were still separated nearly three years after being divided at the border, and Biden did, in fact, sign an order on Jan. 20 to stand up a task force whose mission it would be to bring them together.

In May, the Biden administration announced it had started the reunification process with four families reunited to date. However, the administration has little more to show for the effort nearly four months into the operation.

Raise the refugee cap

Every year, the president determines how many refugees will be admitted to the U.S. Under the Trump administration, the number dropped to historic lows. Biden said as a candidate that he would raise it, adding as president that he would not follow through on Trump’s 15,000-person cap for fiscal year 2021 but would allow more than 60,000 by the end of September, when the government year ends. Biden’s 2022 budget proposed 125,000 refugees.

He initially avoided fulfilling his promise to raise the number of refugees, but immigrant advocacy groups held his feet to the fire and forced him to do so in April. The White House said 62,500 refugees from around the would be the new cap, but it added that it “will not achieve” it because the Trump administration left government agencies tasked with overseeing the process in a weakened position.