What to Watch for In the First 100 Days of the Biden Administration

FAIR Newsletter | Article 5 of 6 | February 2021 | Visit Our Newsletter Page | Full PDF Version

The first hundred days of a new administration is when new presidents traditionally like to make their biggest policy splashes, and we can expect that the Biden administration will have some big changes in store when they move into the West Wing. Immigration is sure to be on the list of the new president’s policy moves. Will Biden’s actual changes reflect an “America last” approach?

Even before taking office Biden was taking steps to dampen the expectations of mass immigration/open borders radicals who are demanding an immediate end to virtually all forms of immigration enforcement. Speaking to reporters before Christmas, the president-elect said, “The timeline to do it is so that we, in fact, make it better, not worse. I will do what I said. It’s going to take, not day one, it’s going to take probably the next six months to put into place.” Perhaps backing away from his promised 100-day moratorium on immigration removals, Biden added that “guardrails” will need to be in place to prevent a border crisis that could result in “two million people on our border.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has indicated that major legislation dealing with amnesty for illegal aliens will likely be introduced in the first hundred days. However, any legislation is likely to face a long road block-filled path as it makes its way through the legislative process. However, the Biden administration will have plenty of opportunities to steer other policy matters from Day One. Among the key decisions President Biden will have to address:

• Not withstanding Biden’s talk of the need for guardrails, his resolve is almost sure to be tested. Organized migrant caravans are forming in Central America, aiming to reach the border by Inauguration Day. Possibly from Day 1, the new president will be forced to choose between keeping promises he made to open borders radicals, or heading off an immigration crisis amidst a national health (including new strains of COVID) and economic by maintaining existing agreements with Mexico and Central American governments.
• How will he handle “family units” at the border? Until policies were put in place in 2019, new migrants were arriving by the hundreds of thousands each month with kids in tow and using children as get out of jail free cards – with Border Patrol Agents discovering that in some cases, the “parents” weren’t even related to their “children”. Will Biden find himself hostage to his own campaign rhetoric, and essentially endorse the actual exploitation of children by releasing everyone who arrives with children, thereby encouraging more people to endanger kids? Or will he act responsibly to prevent the real abuse of children and face the wrath of his far left base?
• Will Biden maintain existing restrictions on new guest workers? Limiting admission of guestworkers during an unemployment crisis enjoys broad public support. It is less popular (to put it mildly) with business interests that want more low-wage foreign labor, and open borders radicals who are increasingly influential in the Democratic Party.

The critical choices that President Biden makes in his first days in office will directly affect his ability to guide the nation through the health and economic crises he will inherit.