How Mayorkas might shape US immigration policy during the Biden administration

Leon Fresco: Sure, absolutely. Ali Mayorkas is one of the most humble, gracious public servants you can examine or ever see in the public sector. When he first became the head of [US Citizenship and Immigration Services] his background had been one of criminal justice. He was a US attorney prior to that. And so from day one, when he started at the agency to six months in, then he was already the biggest code head you could imagine. And by code head, I mean the Immigration and Nationality Act, the legal code. He had that thing memorized in six months and was talking like he’d been doing immigration law his entire life. And so, then when it came time to do the [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] program, which was the program whereby 700,000-800,000 people needed to go through immigration and to actually ask for their status to be changed, at that moment, people thought, “Well, he’s not going to be able to pull this off. I mean, there’s something along the line of a million cases a year period for the agency. How’s he going to double back and do it smoothly?” And the fact that that ran incredibly smoothly is probably why he’s getting this nomination today. 

So, there’s going to be three different things that you need to look out for. So, first would be just the undoing of the plan to eliminate DACA, and that will happen pretty much on day one. The second question is, can new people apply for the program? And I think you’re going to see that relatively quickly, also. Then, there’s a third question which is, well, those dates are kind of old and — the old DACA program that you have to be here since 2007. So, there’s been a whole new crop of “Dreamers” that have sort of come into play there. And the question is, is that going to be expanded to include that group? 

Well, I think the first thing you’re going to see in addition to DACA is the elimination of what I would call country-based immigration bans. And then there’s going to be the longer work of what you do about the asylum program because while what’s been done to the asylum program under President Trump hasn’t comported with the Democratic Party’s values, that’s certainly true, you do run a practical problem that if you sort of undo all of that very quickly, you could risk a border surge during the COVID-19 crisis. 

I don’t think there will be a deemphasis on border security if by border security we mean are we now amenable to people crossing the border unlawfully? No, that will not be happening under a Mayorkas administration or anyone else because we want people using proper pathways to enter the country. Now, someone seeking asylum, I think you’ll see a change in the way they will be treated and they will be given the opportunity to seek asylum. But that’s a different story than whether the border will be open. 

I think that’s always very helpful to have gone through the process yourself, to have a personal identification with that process. And it gives you a currency in both directions. One, sometimes, you’re going to need to be tough, so, when he needs to be tough he can be tough. But also, he will understand that there are limits to the extent of what the government should ever be doing to someone going through this process. And that’s helpful as opposed to, you know, if you had someone who hadn’t been through it, then you never associate how much hardship you’re causing on people by certain policies.