Biden Erases Trump Legacy With Reversal Of Immigration Policy

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Although the twice-impeached ex-president who never won a popular vote insisted that every undocumented immigrant was a gang member, an animal, a drug dealer, and a rapist, the new president is working to erase some of the policies that resulted from those racist assumptions, ending a policy of mass deportations through workplace raids.

Under Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), created to protect the country from terrorists coming across the border, spent their time raiding poultry processing plants to find hard-working immigrants and deport them. Under Biden, it is the employers who exploit immigrant labor who will be targeted instead of the poorly paid workers whose labor makes the company owners money.

‘The Biden administration Tuesday ordered a halt to large-scale immigration arrests at job sites, and said it is planning a new enforcement strategy to more effectively target employers who pay substandard wages and engage in exploitative labor practices.’

The first Latino Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, said that some companies take advantage of the status of undocumented immigrants to pay them slave wages for working in unsafe conditions, knowing that the workers cannot fight back out of fear of being arrested and deported. Under Biden’s new policy, it is those employers who will pay the price instead of the exploited.

The Boston Globe reports that:

‘Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement that enforcement efforts at work sites would instead focus on “unscrupulous employers who exploit unauthorized workers, conduct illegal activities or impose unsafe working conditions.” He also asked for recommendations from the department’s immigration agencies over the next 60 days to identify policies and agreements that affected the enforcement of labor laws and how to “alleviate or mitigate” concerns and fear that workers without legal status had about exploitative employers.’

Amidst a worker shortage, deporting workers who provide American citizens with food and other goods and services makes little sense. Far more importantly, however, it tempers the cruel policies created by Trump that subjected immigrants to abuse and exploitation by the U.S. government.

According to The New York Times:

‘The new policy comes during a critical labor shortage in the United States, precipitated by the coronavirus pandemic, and offers reassurances that undocumented workers are not at risk of being deported en masse. The new strategy also reflects promises that President Biden has made about taking a softer approach to immigration policy than his predecessor did.’