Biden Administration Signals Immigration Regulation Changes

The Biden administration released its regulatory agenda on June 11, 2021 which includes upcoming reforms to several immigration regulations.

The agenda signals reforms to regulations affecting asylum processing, including rescission of harsh provisions, many of which have been blocked by federal courts, imposed by the Trump administration; creating increased availability of “premium processing” fees for more types of applications in order to provide needed funding to USCIS and faster processing; and strengthening the viability of the DACA program for those who arrived in the U.S. as children, among many others.

The regulatory agenda appears to be taking definitive steps to roll back many of the regulations issued by the prior administration that were designed to reduce immigration to the U.S. by all categories of immigrants, whether through humanitarian channels, immediate family, or employment.

Full details won’t be available until the rules themselves are eventually published in the Federal Register.