The Biden administration should reverse the harmful policies that have threatened immigrants for the past four years. For a full list of the immigration policies the Biden administration should address, see Immigration Law Unit Transition Priorities, here. A few priorities from that full list are:

• DHS should immediate end the use of secure detention for immigrant children.
• DHS should immediate stop pursuing the removal of unaccompanied children and special immigrant juveniles:
  • Reinstate the Kim Memo, “Updated Procedures for Determination of Initial Jurisdiction over Asylum Applications Filed by Unaccompanied Alien Children” (Ted Kim, Acting Chief, Asylum Division, HQRAIO I20/12a (05-28-2013)):
  • Allow unaccompanied children to pursue asylum relief before USCIS without threat of removal in immigration court.
  • Grant deferred action to SIJS beneficiaries from visa retrogressed countries.
  • Withdraw pending SIJS regulations, Docket ID: USCIS-2009-0004, RIN 1615-AB81.
  • Withdraw USCIS Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) decisions regarding SIJS eligibility
• ICE should immediately implement the Biden Administration’s new enforcement priorities by exercising prosecutorial discretion, including termination without prejudice and dismissal without prejudice instead of administrative closure, to protect against future administrations’ rollback of administrative closure.
• ICE should generously use conditional parole authority and bond authority, regarding whether to not detain in the first instance or to release people already detained.
• EOIR should add Board of Immigration Appeals members to offset anti-immigrant hiring by Trump Administration.
• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should rescind ICE agency guidance regarding courthouse arrests and add courthouses, probation offices and court mandated programs to the list of sensitive locations where ICE should not engage in enforcement. Read about Legal Aid’s challenge to ICE enforcement at or near New York State courthouses here. 

The Biden administration should dismantle polices that both prevent family based immigration and deter the use of government benefits by citizens and non-citizens alike and inhibit efforts to effectively combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Agencies should rescind the Public Charge Rules which prevent family-based immigration by qualified immigrants and deter use of government benefits:
  • DHS Final Rule, Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds. Read about Legal Aid’s challenge to the DHS public charge rule here.
  • U.S. Department of State, Interim Final Rule, Visas: Ineligibility Based on Public Charge Grounds. Read about Legal Aid’s challenge to the DOS public charge rule, 2018 changes to the Foreign Affairs Manual, and the President’s October 4, 2019 Healthcare Proclamation here.
• The President should rescind the Presidential Proclamation Suspending the Entry of Immigrants Who Will Financially Burden the Health Care System. Read about Legal Aid’s challenge to the DOS public charge rule, 2018 changes to the Foreign Affairs Manual, and the President’s October 4, 2019 Healthcare Proclamation here.
• The President should rescind Presidential Executive Order & Memorandum that target low-income immigrants:
  • Memorandum on Enforcing the Legal Responsibilities of Sponsors of Aliens
  • Executive Order Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility.

• Agencies should withdraw pending regulatory policies that harm low-income immigrants and their U.S. citizen family members:
  • DHS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Affidavit of Support on Behalf of Immigrants.
  • DHS Notice of Modified System of Records; Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program System of Records and related policies.
  • Information Collection; Revision of a Currently Approved Collection: Affidavit of Support Under Section 213A of the Act.

The Biden administration should ensure that barriers to government benefit access including SNAP and healthcare are removed, especially as our clients battle COVID-19 and face health problems and hunger due to unemployment.

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) should rescind the Final Rule Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Requirements for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents.
• The USDA should withdraw additional, pending regulatory actions that would change SNAP in ways that would increase hunger among low-income New Yorkers, including children, people with disabilities and the elderly:
  • Proposed Rule Revision of Categorical Eligibility in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
  • Proposed Rule, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Standardization of State Heating and Cooling Standard Utility 

• The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should rescind the Final Rule Nondiscrimination in Health and Health Education Programs or Activities, Delegation of Authority, that Authorizes Discrimination Against LGBTQ New Yorkers in the Provision of Healthcare.
• The Departments of Treasury, Labor, and HHS should rescind the Interim Final Rule that allows states to rescind Medicaid coverage protections contained in Families First Corona Virus Response Act and to cut medical services and coverage in the midst of a public health crisis.
• The Secretary of HHS should extend the public health emergency currently due to expire on January 21, 2021.

The Biden administration should dismantle policies that undermine low-income families’ ability to have decent, accessible, and affordable housing.

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) should rescind the Preserving Community and Neighborhood Choice and reinstate the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule.
• HUD should withdraw the Proposed Rule prohibiting mixed immigration status families from living in public and other HUD or USDA subsidized housing, Housing and Community Development Act. Of 1980: Verification of Eligible Status.