Biden wants to make moving to the US from abroad easier and cheaper by revamping the immigration system, according to a new report

May 31, 2021

Biden wants to make moving to the US from abroad easier and cheaper by revamping the immigration system, according to a new report

President Joe Biden.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Biden plans to make the immigration process shorter and cheaper, according to a document seen by The New York Times.
New policies could help refugees, asylum-seekers, high-skilled workers, and other groups move to the US, The Times reported.
Biden wants to make immigration forms simpler and the whole process cheaper, per the report.

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President Joe Biden wants to make moving to the US easier and cheaper, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The Biden administration plans to rebuild and expand the legal-immigration system in the US, according to a 46-page government document seen by the Times titled "D.H.S. Plan to Restore Trust in Our Legal Immigration System." The document outlined plans to undo efforts by former President Donald Trump to make immigration more difficult, expensive, and slower, The Times reported.

Policies from the document would help more people move to the US, including refugees, asylum-seekers, trafficking victims, high-skilled workers, families of Americans living abroad, and Native Americans born in Canada, The Times reported.

The Biden administration plans to revamp various programs in the immigration system, including the H-1B Visa program for highly-skilled workers and the U-Visa program, which offers citizenship to undocumented immigrants if they cooperate with law enforcement, the document said, per The Times.

The document proposes simpler immigration forms that can be filed online, The Times reported. People will go through fewer security checks and the US will make fewer requests for evidence from foreigners under the proposals, The Times reported.

Potential immigrants will have a better chance at securing work visas or joining families who live in the US, the document said, per The Times.

They may also pay less or get waivers to lower barriers to immigration, the document showed, per the Times.

More security checks on immigrants during the Trump era, along with less travel during the pandemic, has meant fewer foreigners coming into the US. As a result, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, financed by immigrants' fees, received less money, the Times said. Restoring the agency is central to Biden's effort to develop legal immigration, the document said, per the Times.

"There are significant changes that need to be made to really open up all avenues of legal immigration," Felicia Escobar Carrillo, chief of staff at Citizenship and Immigration Services, told the Times. "In the same way that [the Trump administration] took a broad-stroke approach to closing off avenues, I think we want to take a broad approach toward opening up the legal avenues that have always been available but that they tried to put roadblocks up on."

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