“The situation at the border is one we intend to change, but it is going to take considerable time,” he said.
In Central America in recent weeks, migrant caravans have been on the move, with some aiming to arrive at the southwest border after Biden's inauguration.
The president plans additional immigration moves soon. On Jan. 29 he will issue executive actions to restore US asylum protections, strengthen refugee processing and set up a task force to reunify families still separated by Trump's border policies, according to a memo shared with lawmakers and obtained by Reuters.
The Biden administration will also review barriers to legal immigration put in place by Trump over the past four years, including a regulation that made it harder for poorer immigrants to get permanent residency, the memo said.
BILL NO SLAM DUNK
Lifting the travel ban and implementing executive orders may be an easier task than getting Congress to pass Biden's ambitious immigration bill. It lays out an eight-year road map to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country unlawfully, according to a fact sheet distributed to reporters by incoming White House officials on Tuesday.
Eligible immigrants who were in the country as of Jan. 1 and meet certain requirements would be given a temporary status for five years before being granted green cards. They could apply for citizenship after three more years, officials said.
The wait time for legalisation would be shorter for DACA recipients and immigrants living in the US with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), both programs Trump tried to end. It would also be expedited for some farmworkers.
While Democrats effectively hold a majority in the US House of Representatives, the Senate will be divided 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tiebreaking vote. A lack of bipartisan support has torpedoed past efforts to overhaul the immigration system.
On Tuesday, Republican Senator Marco Rubio called the bill a “non-starter” that included “a blanket amnesty for people who are here unlawfully.”
Advocates acknowledge privately the bill will probably serve more as a statement of goals to set the stage for a series of smaller, single-issue bills that might attract more bipartisan support.
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