Latino Voices

Examining Biden’s First-Year Performance on Immigration


Examining Biden’s First-Year Performance on Immigration

In July 2021, President Joe Biden recalled the journey of his ancestors to this country as he welcomed new citizens at the White House. In his speech, President Biden ticked off some of the ways he planned to evolve immigration policy, including improving border management, securing pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and helping stabilize conditions causing people to flee to the U.S. from Central American countries.

But when it comes to Biden’s delivery on those promises, Dulce Ortiz, executive director of Mano a Mano Family Resource Center in suburban Round Lake Park, does not mince words when she evaluates his performance thus far.

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I would say overall, if I could grade it, I would give it an ‘F’ for failure to deliver on his promises,” Ortiz said. “He campaigned on making immigration a priority in the first 100 days of his administration, and here we are, over a year later and still nothing. This is unacceptable. This was an issue that he campaigned on and has so far been unable to deliver as well as losing the minimum wage increase and voting rights. That doesn’t help either.”

Northwestern University political science professor Jaime Dominguez says that Biden’s flurry of executive orders undoing Trump-era policies upon inauguration demonstrates that he wants to affect change, but wants to make that change lasting by achieving it through Congress.

“Immigration is very difficult and cumbersome. I mean, the last three presidential administrations have been unable to move the needle on comprehensive immigration reform, because it requires Congress to actually put teeth into any type of legislation,” Dominguez said. “Biden has been limited in that. When he came in, he sought to through executive order, right? He halted the construction of the border [wall] at our southern region. But it’s going take Congress to actually do something with respect to immigration reform. It’s not for lack of effort. I think … there’s a lot of the structural barriers that are preventing Biden from moving forward, but he, I think he’s moving the needle.”

Ruben Loyo, associate director of the detention project at the National Immigrant Justice Center, says immigrant detention is an issue he thinks the Biden administration could act on quickly, without Congressional approval.

“In light of new legislation in Illinois that essentially ends immigration detention in the state, the community has been asking ICE to release those individuals … And though we’ve seen some people being released, we have also been learning of clients and other individuals who have been transferred to detention facilities as far away as Oklahoma and Texas. And this is occurring in the midst of an ongoing pandemic,” Loyo said. “What we’re seeing here at the local level is illustrative of what we’re seeing at the national level.  There is definitely more this administration can do to rethink and end some of its most draconian measures and policies.

“With the growing court docket and the immigration court system, this is an obvious and clear opportunity for DHS and ICE to reconsider proceeding with so many deportation cases at this moment, and I think those opportunities abound in the system,” Loyo continued.

Ortiz considers Biden’s inability to bring Democrats in line on immigration a failure of leadership.

“We have to remember there are 11 [million] undocumented sisters and brothers in this country and the administration before him failed our communities by not passing a pathway to citizenship,” said Ortiz. “It’s super important that [Biden] and Congress get it together … this is an issue of leadership, and he has to get his party together and provide immigration relief by passing a pathway to citizenship so that we can have our loved ones come out of the shadows and be able to enjoy life and not be traumatized by continuing to be undocumented.”

Ultimately, Dominguez says, the Biden administration has a tough row to hoe ahead of them now that midterm elections are looming if he wants to accomplish policy change enshrined through legislation.

“Everything that we’re discussing here tonight has to be done legislatively if any kind of measure is going to have teeth,” he said. “Because to do it through these piecemeal executive orders by different administrations, it’s very difficult to have a cohesive program and a policy that’s going to be able to address, for example, the 11 million undocumented, to address the status of DREAMers.”


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