What Happens to Immigration and DACA Under the Biden Administration?

During the 2016 election, President Trump spent a considerable amount of time talking about immigration. On the campaign trail, he made racist comments about Mexicans and one of his first acts in office was to institute a Muslim ban. During the 2018 midterms, he directed his attention to migrant caravans headed towards the U.S. border in the hopes that the issue would animate his base ahead of Election Day. The child separation policy instituted by the Trump administration is among the crueler pieces of his immigration portfolio. Today, hundreds of children remain apart from their families.

The subject of immigration was rarely mentioned during the general campaign for the presidency. This was disheartening for many families and individuals who are living with uncertainty regarding their immigration status. That sense of uncertainty applies to the individuals who participated in the Obama administrations' Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. While the program granted temporary legal status to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, its participants must go through a renewal process every few years. 

Dara Lind, an immigration policy for ProPublica, and Dianne Solis, a reporter covering immigration and social justice issues at The Dallas Morning News, describe what immigration policy could look like under the Biden administration and how he will address the DACA program. Plus, Ciriac Alvarez Valle, a DACA recipient, shares how the program has impacted her life. 

Come January, Cliff Bentz will represent one of the largest congressional districts in the country, Oregon’s second. Like his predecessor Rep. Greg Walden, Bentz will be the only Republican member of the Oregon delegation. Bentz served as part of the Republican minority in Oregon’s state house and senate since 2008. He describes what it was like to govern in the minority party and what lessons he’ll apply to his first term in Washington.