The United States turned the page of the Government of Donald Trump on Wednesday with the inauguration of the new president, Democrat Joe Biden, who in his first hours in the White House signed a package of measures to undo the legacy of its predecessor.
Sitting in the Oval Office with several blue folders stacked to the side, Biden signed in front of the journalists three of the first 17 executive orders of his Government, hours after being sworn in in a heavily guarded ceremony on Capitol Hill and without the public that traditionally welcomes the new White House tenant.
“Some of the executive actions that I am going to signr they will help change the course of the covid crisis and we will combat climate change in a way that we have not done so far, “said the new ruler in the Oval Office.
Use of mask and social distance
Precisely to the fight against the coronavirus, Biden directed his first executive order, establishing the use of a mask and maintaining physical distance as mandatory requirements on federal properties. The Democratic leader proposed the challenge of 100 days of mask use, the same time that has been given to vaccinate more than 100 million Americans.
“The president launched his challenge to wear a mask for 100 days, asking Americans to do their part,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki explained hours later. In his first meeting with journalists, Psaki added that the order to wear a face cover It will also govern public transportation.
Biden thus seeks to disassociate himself from Trump’s management of the pandemic, which made the use of this garment a matter of controversy. For months, Trump and his followers refused to wear masks in public, and even the Republican leader himself caught covid-19 last October.
The Biden Administration hopes to implement a new strategy to curb the rapid spread of the disease, that in the first days of the year has reached records of infections and deaths
The United States leads the world statistics with more than 24.4 million positive cases and more than 400,000 deceased –almost double that of Brazil, which is second in mortality figures, according to the independent count of Johns Hopkins University.
Biden, in the Oval Office. / GETTY IMAGES
USA will remain in the WHO
Biden suspended the US exit from the World Health Organization (WHO), approved his re-entry to the Paris Climate Agreement. Psaki also stressed that the US remains in the WHO, which, he considered, “will strengthen” the country’s efforts to control the pandemic.
The spokeswoman confirmed that the former Trump White House chief epidemiologist and Now Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, will participate remotely this Thursday in a meeting of the WHO andnheading a delegation from the country.
Trump had started in July of last year the process to leave the world body, which was to take effect a year later, in the same month of 2021.
In addition, the now former president had frozen last April the funds that the US contributes to the WHO, accusing this body of being “biased” in favor of China and of having mismanaged the health emergency of covid-19.
Return to the Paris Agreement against climate change
–The arrival of Biden and his wife to the White House. / GETTY IMAGES
Another of the measures that Biden signed was to reverse Trump’s decision to remove the United States, the second most polluting country on the planet, dthe Paris Agreement against climate change.
The withdrawal of the first world power, which Trump launched in June 2017, It became effective on November 4, since point 28 of that instrument establishes that any country that has ratified the pact, as in the case of the United States, can only request its exit three years after its entry into force.
Biden recalled today that this was one of his commitments, since as soon as the US exit from that agreement became effective, he announced that the country would return under his mandate.
Psaki pointed out that reincorporation to the Paris Climate Agreement “It puts the United States back in a position to exercise world leadership.”
No to the wall
He also signed another decree ordering to stop the construction of the border wall with Mexico, by ending the national emergency decreed by Trump to divert funds to that project.
In another example of the new White House immigration policy, Biden overruled by uAn executive order the migratory veto imposed by his predecessor on travelers from 11 Muslim-majority countries, popularly known as the “Muslim veto”.
That ban, enacted by Trump when he came to power in 2017, hindered the entry into the United States of nationals of 11 countries with significant Muslim populations (Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Syria , Tanzania and Yemen), and included restrictions for Venezuela and North Korea.
Biden suspends deportations for 100 days
Joe Biden’s government announced on Wednesday night a 100-day suspension of immigrant deportations, although with some exceptions, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“For 100 days, beginning January 22, 2021, DHS suspend deportations of certain non-citizens whose deportation has been ordered “, detailed the acting secretary, David Pekoske, recently appointed by Biden.
The reason, Pekoske said, is to “ensure” that the United States has “a fair and effective immigration system focused on protecting national security, border security and public safety, “for which he ordered a” review and restart “of the protocols.
DHS did not provide details in the statement about who is excluded from the 100-day measure. During the campaign, Biden already committed to this suspension of deportations, although at that time he did so without exceptions.
Biden made this commitment after receiving harsh criticism during the Democratic primary for deportations massive campaigns of the Government of Barack Obama, of which he was vice president.
During the Obama presidency, three million immigrants were deported, more than under any other US government, including that of Donald Trump. The 100-day pause of deportations is in addition to another measure announced Wednesday by DHS: The suspension from the inscriptions to the program “Stay in Mexico”, which allowed Trump to return asylum seekers to the neighboring country.
Other measures such as strengthening the program for undocumented youth
In addition, Biden has approved a series of immigration measures within the package with 17 executive orders that he has signed after settling in the White House, such as the reinforcement of the program for known undocumented youth as “dreamers” or “dreamers” or reviewing priorities when arresting immigrants undocumented.
It has also presented an immigration plan that plans to regularize 11 million undocumented, although that project depends on the Legislature.
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