Biden acts to reverse immigration restrictions, open up new pathways to citizenship

President Joe Biden made a sweeping effort on his first day in office Wednesday to reverse many of his predecessor's hard-line immigration policies, drawing guarded optimism from local immigration advocates.

He directed his administration to preserve the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which has offered legal protections to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came as children without legal authorization. President Donald Trump had tried to rescind it. Biden requested Congress give DACA recipients permanent status and a path to citizenship.

"I feel like I can breathe again knowing that we have a path," said Karen Velez-Barron, a 24-year-old DACA recipient who lives in Inver Grove Heights. "Because this is our country at the end of the day. I've been here since I was 3 years old."

https://www.startribune.com/biden-acts-to-reverse-immigration-restrictions-open-up-new-pathways-to-citizenship/600013040/