Daily US Times: President Joe Biden plans to create a taskforce to reunify families separated at the US-Mexico border by the former Trump administration, as part of a new series of immigration executive actions signed at an Oval Office ceremony on Tuesday.
The president condemned Donald Trump’s immigration policies as a “stain on the reputation” of the US.
Biden pledged to “undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families, their mothers, and fathers, at the border, and with no plan – none whatsoever – to reunify”.
The two other executive orders announced on Tuesday call for a review of the changes the former Trump administration made to reshape US immigration, and for programs to address the forces driving people north.
A briefing document released before Mr Biden’s executive orders said the president’s immigration plans were “centered on the basic premise that our country is safer, stronger, and more prosperous with a fair, safe and orderly immigration system that welcomes immigrants, keeps families together, and allows people – both newly arrived immigrants and people who have lived here for generations – to more fully contribute to our country”.
A central piece of the executive actions is the family reunification taskforce, charged with identifying and enabling the reunification of all children separated from their families by the Trump administration.
White House officials said they could not say how many children had to be reunified because the policy had been implemented without a method for tracking the separated families.
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