A Deportation Moratorium, What Comes Next for Biden?
This blog is the eighth in a series outlining a reimagined, just, and humane immigration system for the United States.
The past four years proved that the Biden-Harris administration must be bold and focused on overhauling the immigration system. The Trump administration has touted the 鈥溾 changes it has made to our immigration system. The changes are indeed breathtaking 鈥 in their, abject , and. The Trump administration has been with our immigration and refugee system, using a to upend it. On his way out, Trump is also shoving through 鈥溾 at further harming immigrants.
Our border militarization and immigration enforcement machinery is , , and increasingly . It is this vast, 鈥溾 that Trump has to its limits, but the issue predates Trump. The last four years under Trump have highlighted how cruel and unjust our immigration system can be 鈥 but also demonstrated the significant discretion the executive branch can exercise.
The Biden-Harris administration to an immediate moratorium on deportations. Hitting pause on banishing people from the United States acknowledges that our immigration system is deeply flawed 鈥 even more so after four years of Trump 鈥 but also provides the space to begin laying the groundwork for an audacious and inclusive vision for immigrants鈥 rights.
During a moratorium, the executive branch must immediately halt immigration enforcement and deportations while it works to undo policies like the Muslim ban, the , the , and the evisceration of asylum. We know that just reversing course will be a massive task, but it is also not enough.
A moratorium also provides an opportunity for the Biden-Harris administration to reject our existing immigration system's reliance on the punitive, enforcement-based approach driven by mass detention and mass deportation. This system .
The executive branch should instead invest in a humane and effective system focused on helping people navigate a byzantine immigration system and on a pathway to citizenship. In this reimagined immigration system, ICE and CBP would not use states and localities to funnel immigrants into the detention and deportation system, and would work to end racial profiling rather than engage in and encourage it. Immigrants would not be caged while going through the immigration system, but instead be with family and a support system as they pursue relief under the supervision of a judge. And the government would provide lawyers for people who are too poor to afford one because that is what fairness and justice demand.
There is a real opportunity and to reimagine our country鈥檚 approach to immigration: shifting from a detention and deportation-obsessed approach to one that is rooted in fundamental due process and human rights.
Take, for example, , created by Congress in 1996 as part of a radical alteration of our immigration system. This law allows for summary deportations with virtually no safeguards 鈥 the antithesis of due process. As a result, many people do not have a hearing before an immigration judge before they鈥檙e ordered deported. In 2013, 83 percent of deportation orders did not come from an immigration judge.
Unfortunately, it鈥檚 gotten worse in the last four years. In 2019, the Trump administration issued an order vastly expanding expedited removal, which was halted until recently because of a lawsuit brought by the 老澳门开奖结果 and its partners. While that continues, and we hope to once again halt the expansion, the Trump administration currently has the ability to apply the summary removal procedures more widely than ever before.
The Trump administration鈥檚 move to expand the government鈥檚 ability to round up and hurriedly deport immigrants 鈥 especially as a pandemic rages on 鈥 is horrifying. So many of the people detained and deported by our government have lives, , and roots in this country. It is impossible to gloss over their rights and humanity without irrevocably demeaning the values we profess as a nation.
It is clear that our existing enforcement infrastructure can no longer exist. A moratorium on deportations gives the Biden-Harris administration an opportunity to reset our system, and implement policies that will:
- the ICE detention machine;
- Divest from ICE and CBP and reinvest in communities rather than cages and militarized borders;
- End the programs that entangle state and local agencies in federal immigration enforcement;
- Terminate or pause the deportation cases of vulnerable populations who cannot afford lawyers, as the administration moves toward appointing counsel for all indigent noncitizens facing deportation;
- Roll back the expansion of expedited removal immediately and end the policy; and
- Reject our existing immigration system's reliance on a punitive, enforcement-based approach and instead build momentum for an inclusive pathway to citizenship without enforcement or border militarization tradeoffs.
This is a unique moment in our history. We have faced unprecedented challenges this year, from a pandemic that has killed in the United States to nationwide and an end to racism in policing. Immigrants鈥 rights are inextricably linked to these moments: from our communities on the fight to the disproportionate impact of enforcement, detention, and deportation on Black immigrants. While the 老澳门开奖结果 works to achieve citizenship for all so that immigrants no longer live in fear, we will simultaneously push for a reimagined immigration system.