What are the Efforts by the New US President to Reunite Separated Families?

 

Many families were separated by the Trump administration’s ban on the entry of foreign nationals.  Perhaps you even found yourself seeking an immigration attorney in New York to protect your family’s right to asylum if you were affected by this ban. But there’s reason to be optimistic. With a new president, there’s also new hope.

 

In his first week as President, Joe Biden made sweeping legislative proposals and new immigration policy reversals. As per attorneys and advocates, his attempts to undo the previous administration’s most controversial policies—such as family separations at borders—may be the most challenging.

 

The policy—which separated children and infants from parents and relatives who crossed US borders without permission—was referred to by Biden as a ‘moral failing’. He promised to immediately halt the prosecution of parents for the minor immigration violations that led to their family’s separation.

If you were separated from your family because of this policy, it is in your best interest to consult an immigration attorney in New York. Biden vowed to create a task force to reunite over 600 parents who are still separated from their children at this point in time and whose whereabouts remains unknown. His executive orders were expected to be enacted in the first week of February.

Immigration attorneys in New York are encouraged by Biden’s policy. It might take time to completely stop border agents from separating families, but it is a good start to ending the ‘zero tolerance’ policy that was approved by the Trump administration to separate families and criminally prosecute all undocumented people who crossed the border. While it’s true that families were also separated by prior administrations, there’s no question that Trump’s immigration policies were the most divisive and destructive.