Biden’s New Plan for I.C.E.

Photo by Associated Press

Joe Biden and protester have conversation about their stance on deportation

On Thursday, February 18, President Biden announced his new guidelines for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as I.C.E. Throughout his campaign, one of Biden’s core promises was to end the system deportation that the Obama and Trump administration had set into place. In these new guidelines, he decided to go against his promise he made to his voters and not end deportation. 

Instead, deportation is now a much more elongated process and has a few more checks and balances put into place. I.C.E. executives and officers were also given orders to prioritize threats of national security over a person of less significance. According to The Washington Post, it's likely that deportation rates will drop because of these new changes. Despite that, it's still not nearly as much as the rates would have dropped if he had followed through with his promise, which would have been to zero. “He’s doing all these things as an appeasement for the right. I get that there's some appeasement in politics, but you can't appease with people's lives.” Lucas White, 12, said.