President Joe Biden’s first round of immigration-related executive orders has drawn praise and hope for further reform from immigration advocates in Massachusetts and across the country.
The orders, signed just hours after Biden was sworn in as the nation’s 46th president, began what is expected to be a long process of chiseling away at the anti-immigrant policies that were a centerpiece of the Trump administration.
“I’m really pleased to hear the commitments that he’s made in these initial executive actions and, hopefully, the continued action that he and his administration will take toward immigration justice,” the Rev. Cody Sanders of Old Cambridge Baptist Church said.
Sanders' church has offered sanctuary to undocumented immigrants since the 1980s and is now part of a coalition of ten Cambridge-based churches that shares the responsibilities associated with hosting immigrants in sanctuary.
Biden’s actions included fortifying the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, policy established under the Obama administration in 2012. It gives the Department of Homeland Security authority to exercise discretion when it comes to deporting immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and have “obeyed the law and stayed in school or enlisted in the military,” according to the Wednesday order.
Former President Donald Trump attempted to terminate DACA, but the U.S. Supreme Court concluded last June that it was done in an unlawful manner. The administration was eventually ordered to re-open deferral applications.
Biden also reinstated deportation deferrals for Liberians who fled to the U.S. from civil conflict in their country in the early 1990s, revoked a 2017 expansion of immigration enforcement and reversed the so-called “Muslim ban” that had prevented people from certain countries from entering the U.S.
Sanders, who traveled to Logan Airport the night the so-called Muslim ban went into effect, described the last four years as a period of “continual crisis response” and said the travel ban reversal and the revocation of immigration enforcement expansion would likely be most consequential to the community his church serves.
"There are so many ways that we have seen the lives of immigrants in our community become really precarious because of the actions of the previous administration, so I think there's a lot of potential in those actions to make life more livable," he said.
Other advocates agreed on the need for more work.
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, who heads the Baltimore-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said the actions also signal a return to an America that is open and compassionate towards immigrants. Her organization has resettled more than 500 refugees in Massachusetts since 2016, according to a spokesperson.
“We are deeply grateful to the Biden administration for keeping its word to refugees, asylum seekers [and] all those who stand for America as a welcoming nation,” Vignaraja told GBH News.
“It is incredible to see the stark contrast that the Biden administration represents, even down to the fact that the new vice president is the daughter of immigrants from opposite sides of the globe,” she added.
Eva Millona, president of Massachusetts Immigration and Refugee Coalition, or MIRA, said that while the executive orders are heartening, they are not the ultimate answer to the problem of the outdated U.S. immigration system.
"We're eager to see the temporary fixes to end the suffering and the level of anxiety and the powerful fears among the immigrant community and mixed-status household families, but we would love to see legislative fixes," she said.
Millona pointed to a recent Fox News poll that found most Americans support legal status for undocumented immigrants. A 2017 Fox News poll also found that found 83% of respondents — including 63% of Trump voters — supported a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
“It’s not just one issue that affects the immigrant community — [it] impacts all of us. That’s why over 180 corporations just the other day signed on to a letter to Congress,” Millona said, pointing to a Wednesday letter from the technology trade group TechNet that urged Congress to approve the Biden administration’s immigration agenda.
“I think it will help that the immigration debate will [now be] a policy issue, not a political issue," Millona said.
Other immigration-focused groups expressed concern over what the executive orders and coming policy proposals might mean for the country. The DC-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for limited and controlled immigration, released a statement labelling Biden’s executive actions as “antithetical” to the goal of unifying our nation.
“We hope fervently that when it comes to dealing with immigration, the new administration will seek to find common-sense policies that not only serve to enhance the economic recovery from COVID, but provide lasting security and prosperity for the country," said Dan Stein, FAIR's president. "President Biden must protect American jobs and not capitulate to special interests pushing radical policies that put Americans last."
Stein added that the group looks forward to engaging with the administration in the future.
Sanders said others should prepare to engage, too, explaining that despite the relief many might feel from the executive actions, they should commit to keeping the administration and all elected officials accountable.
“We are a country of great aspirations, many of which have never really been lived up to or lived in to," he said. "So, ensuring that the energy … [that is] really keeping our elect officials accountable to those aspirations is what I’m focused on going forward."
