Biden To Introduce Immigration Bill ‘Immediately’ After Taking Office

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has said he will introduce an immigration legislation "immediately" after taking office, reversing the Trump administration's policies

Biden will take the oath of office on Jan. 20.

"I will introduce an immigration bill immediately and have it sent to the appropriate committees to begin movement," he told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden was responding to a question on what his administration would do first after his inauguration on Jan. 20.

He had also previously promised an immigration overhaul within 100 days of taking office.

Reversing the Trump administration's "cruel" immigration policies was Biden's one of the key election promises.

Restricting immigration has been a focus of the Trump administration since its first days when it issued the travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, and it has continued into Trump's final year in office as the White House uses the coronavirus pandemic as cover.

The Trump government hardened the immigration rules on those allowed to seek asylum in the U.S. and advocated a merit-based immigration system to protect U.S. workers. His administration also tried ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in 2017, but the Supreme Court blocked its attempt in June 2019.

Biden said he will also countermand the Trump administration's orders on environmental issues.

"I will in fact, countermand the executive orders that the president has in fact initiated that are contrary to, what I think, is either his authority and/or even if it is his authority, contrary to the interest of the United States on environmental issues and a whole range of other things," he said.

Biden had vowed to rejoin the Paris climate agreement on the first day of his presidency. The U.S. on Nov. 4 last year formally withdrew from the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, a decision originally announced by President Donald Trump in 2017.