When he takes office, President-elect Joe Biden will face an extraordinary array of global challenges: the COVID-19 pandemic; deepening economic inequality exacerbated by the coronavirus; disproportionate influence of a handful of technology and social media companies in the public sphere; frayed relations with world leaders and global institutions; reduced trust in U.S. diplomacy; rising authoritarianism; and attacks on ethnic and religious minorities. To be truly effective on all those fronts, Biden must focus on addressing some key domestic challenges first. After all, the United States’ ability to lead in the world will rest in part on its capacity to get its own house in order.
The first challenge is immigration. President Donald Trump made immigration and attacks on immigrants a hallmark of his 2016 presidential campaign. His rhetoric and his administration’s policies on building a border wall, separating and detaining families at the U.S.-Mexican border, the overall treatment of asylum-seekers, the reduction in refugees welcomed to an all-time historical low, the ban on travelers from many Muslim-majority countries, attempts to abolish Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and countless attacks on Mexicans and other nationalities, were cruel and racist. With over 400 executive actions on immigration from the past four years to review and reverse, Biden must prioritize vulnerable asylum-seekers on the border, who suffered under policies and actions that were in violation of international and domestic law.
