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1 1 (August 4, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveefm0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional                                             ______
A'Research Service
The Biden Administration's Immigration
Enforcement Priorities: Background and
Legal Considerations
Updated August 4, 2021
Almost immediately after taking office, President Biden issued a series of directives on immigration
matters. Some of these directives focused on altering the immigration enforcement priorities of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the agency primarily charged with the enforcement of federal
immigration laws. Federal statute confers immigration authorities with broad discretion to determine
when it is appropriate to pursue the removal of a non-U.S. citizen or national (alien) who lacks a legal
basis to remain in the country. Resource or humanitarian concerns have typically led authorities to
prioritize enforcement actions against subsets of the removable population (e.g., those who have
committed certain crimes or pose national security risks). The Trump Administration made enforcement a
touchstone of its immigration policy, and generally sought to enforce federal immigration laws against a
broader range of aliens who had committed immigration violations than the Obama Administration. The
Trump Administration also sought to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
program, which allows certain unlawfully present aliens who came to the United States as children to
remain and work in this country for a certain period of time.
President Biden rescinded some of the Trump Administration's immigration measures, and also directed
DHS to reexamine its immigration enforcement policies and priorities. DHS sought, during the pendency
of that review, to restrict temporarily immigration enforcement actions to cover only certain aliens, and to
suspend the execution of most removal orders for a period of 100 days. President Biden also announced
an intent to preserve and fortify DACA. A federal district court, however, enjoined DHS's 100-day
pause on deportations pending the outcome of a legal challenge to that action; and, in a separate case, the
court ruled that the DACA initiative is unlawful.
This Sidebar addresses the Biden Administration's immigration enforcement priorities and legal
considerations that they raise.
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports. congress.gov
LSB10578
CRS Legal Sidebar
Prepared for Members and
Committees of Congress

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