Washington, DC — Today, President Joe Biden will sign a sweeping collection of executive orders regarding immigration. The orders:
Direct an immediate review of President Trump’s “public charge” rule that bars green cards from immigrants likely to use certain social welfare programs and
Rescind the requirement for asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while being processed.
Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson issued the following statement in response:
These new orders will make America less safe, less prosperous, and less free by opening our borders and destroying the most successful immigration rules of the last four years. By abandoning common-sense asylum policies and increasing the burden on our strained social safety net, these orders will take away jobs from Americans struggling to find employment and kneecap America's economic recovery from lockdowns.
Polling conducted by Heritage Action before the COVID-19 pandemic showed that the greatest concern with illegal immigration among American voters is “abuse of social services.” These orders prove those Americans’ fears were well-founded. The United States has a long legacy of welcoming immigrants who seek to contribute to society and those who need asylum the most, but the President’s orders hurt truly needy applicants as well as the American people.