President Joe Biden is signing three executive orders on immigration today. The first establishes a task force that will aim to reunite hundreds of asylum-seeking families separated by the Trump administration. The two other orders will look into Trump’s disruption of the asylum process, restore funding to Central American countries aimed at combating the root causes of why people flee, and review Trump’s controversial “Remain in Mexico” program and other Trump-era policies that made it harder for immigrants to get permanent residency if they used public aid such as food stamps.
This comes as immigration advocates are condemning the deportation of hundreds of asylum seekers within the first few days of Biden’s presidency — after a federal judge temporarily blocked Biden’s 100-day moratorium on many removals. A U.S. deportation flight departed to Haiti Monday — the first day of Black History Month. The Guardian reports nearly two dozen African asylum seekers are scheduled for deportation as early as today.
