Amnesty for American Dreamers
If not the first, it will be one of the measures with which President Joe Biden will inaugurate his term: the ban on deporting the more than 600,000 undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children. They were, they are, the so-called "dreamers", for whom their parents, mostly of Latin American origin, aspired not only to a better life but even for their offspring to be able to use all their talents in the land of opportunity; in the great country where everything is possible, according to the cliché set on fire in the minds of millions of disinherited people.
Biden is gradually revealing how he will dismantle many of the policies that Donald J. Trump instituted and which have radically changed the image and so-called "soft power" of the United States. The chapter on immigration has been particularly dramatic in a country paradoxically constructed as the dream destination of people of all races and backgrounds from all over the planet.
Despite the many thousands of illegal immigrants that the Trump Administration has deported, in addition to the tens of thousands rejected at the border with Mexico, stranded in the country of the Aztecs or contained in Central America, it is estimated that over eleven million live and work in the United States. States and cities such as California, Los Angeles and New York have had their hands full with the White House for disobeying its orders to persecute and deprive of their basic rights these three percent of the 330 million inhabitants of the United States.
Biden intends to amnesty these over 11 million people and regularise their situation in order to put an end to the survival of part of the population, which is subjected to all kinds of abuses precisely because of its illegal status. For this amnesty Biden will have to be approved by Congress. A majority in the House of Representatives guarantees his support, but in the Senate he will have to rely on a vote of the Republican opposition, which is not yet guaranteed, to carry it through. If it does, it would be the biggest legalisation since Ronald Reagan signed it in 1986, ending his nightmare for 3 million undocumented immigrants.
The turnaround in immigration policy by the new American administration will not, however, mean a total amnesty. Those who have been criminally convicted of crimes against persons or property as well as those who have been repeat offenders in their attempt to enter the country illegally would be exempt from it. Biden is aware that he cannot override the opinion of the 74 million voters who have given Trump their trust at the polls, among many other reasons because of his harsh stance on illegal immigration. In the same vein, it is very likely that he will maintain in its integrity the agreement that his predecessor concluded with Mexican President López Obrador, reinforcing hot returns, that is, deportations to Mexico of illegal immigrants detained on U.S. soil shortly after crossing the border.
Biden completes his intentions in this immigration chapter with his announcement of increasing the quota of refugees to 125,000 from the 15,000 that Trump had set as the limit for 2021. He also intends to repeal the entry restrictions imposed on citizens from thirteen Muslim countries, one of Trump's first decisions, which served to underpin the accusation of "Islamophobia" with which the radical Jihadists disqualify any criticism.
And, finally, the 200,000 Venezuelan exiles who live and work as best they can in the United States could avail themselves of the Temporary Protection Status, which prevents the repatriation or deportation to their country of origin and against their will of people susceptible to reprisals.
The future Biden Administration will, however, have to be exquisitely careful to convince many Republican voters that its new immigration policy will not result in the loss of rights of those who arrived earlier and, once settled, forget their roots and close the doors to those who in turn want to try to realize their dreams as well.