Column: Biden has a dignified and proactive immigration platform that reverses xenophobic policy

Imagine raising a family in a corrupt country, facing assault without justice, being separated from your family with no hope of reunification, living in abject poverty, fearing for your life daily. This is the reality for many outside America’s borders, and just some of the reasons why they so desperately attempt to cross over into a new life.

During his presidency, Donald Trump’s border policies devastated many families seeking relief in the American dream, denying them unalienable rights and instead inciting abusive behavior toward migrants. The U.S. needs to support the Biden administration’s border policies because they provide a safe haven for refugees from persecution, allowing them to better their lives and productively contribute to American society.

The Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy ruled that all illegal border crossings would result in jail, causing more than 3,000 children to be separated from their parents at the border. Immigration case backlog meant that these children could then be detained for months or even years until their case was settled. By criminalizing the quest for refuge, Trump separated families and placed a harmful stigma on immigrants that is contrary to America’s longstanding humanitarian commitment to protecting the weak and persecuted.

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President Biden has already taken the appropriate steps to remedy this harm by rescinding the zero-tolerance policy, reversing a xenophobic suspension of visas to Muslim-majority countries, reuniting 36 migrant families, and creating a task force to grant parole, offer trauma and mental health resources, and outline how to avoid future estrangement at the border.

Supporting friendly immigration policies, like the revival of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — the policy giving young immigrants a pathway to stay in the U.S. for study and work — has more than just a humanitarian benefit. DACA allows hundreds of thousands of immigrants the chance to pursue the American Dream, while also contributing productively to the US economy. Analysis by the Center for American Progress found an estimated $9.5 billion in taxes is paid by migrants annually.

Although the Biden administration has greatly changed the situation at the border, some of his critics are still unhappy. Because of his migrant-friendly policies, there have been double the number of immigrants detained than in 2020 under Trump. Biden’s opposition argues that Trump’s strict immigration platform deported criminals and terrorists and protected American jobs. However, though Trump may have soothed the border situation after Barack Obama’s presidency (who had created a stricter task force and became known as the “deporter-in-chief”), his policies simply enforced stricter punishments of immigrants crossing illegally. He also categorized all immigrants as terrorists, harshly punishing the innocent rather than focusing attention on actual criminals.

Biden is not allowing a surge of immigrants to enter America; rather, he is continuing the proper deferral of immigrants in a way that preserves their dignity, and aligns with America’s founding values.

Even though he has yet to fulfill all of his promises to improve immigration infrastructure and reverse restrictions on granting asylum, Biden still has acted swiftly to ensure better care of people at the border. Despite an influx of immigrants, under Biden’s administration, families are cared for together and young immigrants are given a chance to lead a productive life in America.

If the U.S. continues to patiently advocate for Biden’s policies, the U.S. border problems can be resolved in a safe and fair way, and we can help shape America to again be the place in which all people may come to seek refuge — a place, as noted by the Statue of Liberty, for “(the) tired, (the) poor, (the) huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

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Melina Ventura is a student at Island School on Kauai, Class of 2022.

“Raise Your Hand,” a monthly column featuring Hawaii’s youth and their perspectives, appears in the Insight section on the first Sunday of each month. It is facilitated by the Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders (www.CTLhawaii.org).