Biden wants to make moving to the US from abroad easier and cheaper by revamping the immigration system, according to a new report
- Biden wants to make it easier for foreigners to move to the US, The New York Times reported.
- New policies could help refugees, asylum-seekers, skilled workers, and others move to the US.
- Biden wants to make immigration forms simpler and the whole process cheaper, the report said.
President Joe Biden wants to make moving to the US easier and cheaper, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The Biden administration plans to rebuild and expand the US's legal-immigration system, according to a 46-page government document seen by The Times titled "D.H.S. Plan to Restore Trust in Our Legal Immigration System." The draft document outlined plans to undo President Donald Trump's efforts to make immigration more difficult, expensive, and slower, The Times reported.
Policies described in the document would help more people move to the US, including refugees, asylum-seekers, trafficking victims, skilled workers, families of Americans living abroad, and Native Americans born in Canada, The Times reported.
The Biden administration plans to revamp various programs in the immigration system, including the H-1B visa program for highly skilled workers and the U-visa program, which offers citizenship to immigrants if they cooperate with law enforcement, the document said, according to The Times.
The document proposed simpler immigration forms that could be filed online, The Times reported. People would go through fewer security checks and the US would limit requests for evidence from foreigners under the proposals, The Times reported.
The proposals would aim to give people a better chance of securing work visas or joining families who live in the US, The Times reported. People could also pay less or get waivers in order to lower barriers to immigration, the report said.
More security checks for immigrants under the Trump administration and travel restrictions during the pandemic have meant fewer foreigners coming into the US. As a result, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, financed by immigrants' fees, has received less money, The Times said. The document said that restoring the agency would be central to Biden's efforts, according to The Times.
"There are significant changes that need to be made to really open up all avenues of legal immigration," Felicia Escobar Carrillo, the chief of staff at Citizenship and Immigration Services, told The Times.
She added that in the same way the Trump administration "took a broad-stroke approach to closing off avenues, I think we want to take a broad approach toward opening up the legal avenues that have always been available but that they tried to put roadblocks up on."