JUDY WOODRUFF: One year into President Biden's tenure we
are taking a look at the status of some of his key campaign promises.
Today, we dive into immigration. President Biden came into office promising to undo the aggressive
policies of the previous administration and usher in a more humane approach.
Amna Nawaz is here to lay out how he's doing on those fronts.
So, Amna, as we're suggesting, big promises from then-candidate
Joe Biden. How, as President Biden, has he made a difference on those promises?
AMNA NAWAZ: So, Judy, you're absolutely right. He came into office saying he's not just going
to undo what the previous president had done. He's going to create and work toward a more
fair, more humane overall immigration system.
And to that point, some of his earliest executive actions as soon as he came into office
were immigration-related. Take a look at just some of them. In his first days in office,
President Biden stopped construction of the border wall. He ended the Trump era
travel bans. He created the Family Reunification Task Force to find
and reunify those families separated under the Trump administration. And he reinstated DACA,
that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that shields dreamers from deportation.
But, Judy, he also started to lay out a broader groundwork and strategy for how to address
some of the changes that, quite frankly, people have been calling for, for decades,
in a system that really hasn't had meaningful reform in over 30 years.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, specifically, let me ask you about at the Southern border.
I mean, we know this has gotten so much attention. It's been the subject of so much political
debate. The in -- migration into the country has continued. What changes has President Biden made?
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, Judy, as you know, as our viewers know,
every modern president has -- president has grappled with managing migration there.
And we should note the numbers at the Southern border were rising
even before President Biden came into office. After he was sworn in,
they really did start to dramatically rise, up to a 20-year high last year.
But, as a candidate, Mr. Biden was very, very forceful about
speaking out about the Trump policies at the border, specifically some that kept
asylum seekers to -- forcing them to stay in Mexico while their cases here unfolded,
and also one pandemic rule that essentially shut down border traffic altogether.
In fact, here's how Mr. Biden talked about that back in August of 2020.
JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: We're going to restore our moral standing
in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers.
My lord, we have never -- we have never made asylum seekers
stay -- seek asylum outside the United States of America.
AMNA NAWAZ: Judy, since then,
some of those promises have run up into some real-world realities.
He did try to end MPP. That was the program that forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico.
It went to the courts. The courts ruled against
him. They had to put that back into place. So that rule remains in place.
But President Biden has also not tried to end Title 42. That's that pandemic
rule that forced people basically to be expelled immediately after they tried
to cross the border. He created some carve-outs for children and
families. But that rule from the Trump administration also remains in place.
Perhaps one of the biggest changes we have seen, though, when it comes to the border
is something that happens hundreds of miles away from the border. And that
was the Biden administration's decision to prioritize and invest in root causes,
the reasons that people leave their countries in the first place.
Vice President Harris was put in charge of that. They have already secured over a
billion dollars in private sector and other commitments. It's potentially huge change,
Judy. But that's the kind of change that will take a while to show up.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So that's immigrants. We're talking about people outside the country.
But what about the undocumented people who live inside, who have already
moved to this country, the dreamers, for example?
What promises has the president made for them? And has he fulfilled them?
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, candidate Biden was very forceful and
specific about his plans for that population.
Here's how we talked about it back in October of 2020.
JOE BIDEN: Within 100 days, I'm going to send to the United States Congress
a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people.
And all of those so-called dreamers, those DACA kids, they're going to be immediately
certified again to be able to stay in this country and put on a path to citizenship.
AMNA NAWAZ: So, Judy, day one in office, President Biden did reinstate DACA. But that, of course, is
temporary. There is still no permanent solution. That would have to come through Congress.
We actually asked a young undocumented woman by the name of Eva Santos about what she
thinks the President Biden's record so far. Here's what she had to say.
EVA SANTOS, DACA Recipient: He also promised to protect and expand programs like DACA
and provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented people like me.
And we remain under limbo.
So, I think it is more than obvious that he has fallen short on each of his promises.
AMNA NAWAZ: Judy, the other big change, of course, was changing the enforcement guidelines for ICE.
He raised the bar, meaning people aren't arrested and deported unless they're considered security
threats or they have committed crimes. That's a big change from the previous administration.
JUDY WOODRUFF: All this, Amna, reminding us what a complicated set of issues is
involved around immigration. It couldn't be hotter politically.
So, to sum it up, I mean, what does this first year under President Biden
tell you about what could be done in coming years?
AMNA NAWAZ: Well, Judy, perhaps the biggest change from this administration to the last
has just been the way they talk about immigration.
There's been a rhetorical reestablishment that immigration is central to this country as a core
value. But, again and again, President Biden has run up against some of the same challenges
as previous presidents have. And that is to say, until Congress acts on a lot of these
issues, until the laws are changed, a broken immigration system will largely remain broken.
JUDY WOODRUFF: No question, one of the toughest set of issues confronting this president.
Amna Nawaz, thanks very much.