Never Again Action<\/a>, an activist group that came to prominence with a series of protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the summer of 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBiden\u2019s Tuesday comments contrasted with his campaign trail promise to end the so-called \u201cRemain in Mexico\u201d program that currently requires asylum seekers to await their U.S. court hearings in Mexico, often under dangerous conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe last thing we need is to say we\u2019re going to stop immediately, the access to asylum, the way it\u2019s being run now, and then end up with 2 million people on our border,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two top Biden advisors likewise told a Spanish newswire this week that American immigration policy would not change immediately under Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMigrants and asylum seekers absolutely should not believe those in the region peddling the idea that the border will suddenly be fully open to process everyone on Day 1,\u201d Susan Rice, who will oversee domestic policy for Biden, told EFE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden, Rice and Jake Sullivan, whom Biden has named as his national security advisor, said that the new administration was committed to restoring the asylum process but that doing so will likely take several months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, the early calls for patience regarding the callous treatment of migrants, a central issue for many Jews who opposed President Donald Trump, provoked frustration among some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an email, Rubin wrote that Trump signed three executive orders cracking down on immigration in his first week in office, and that repealing the current administration\u2019s policies was \u201cthe bare minimum of what the Biden administration needs to do in order to transform our broken immigration system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jewish refugee aid organization HIAS was more measured in its response to Biden\u2019s comments, but also called for swift action. Melanie Nezer, senior vice president for public affairs, said that Biden\u2019s announcement \u201chad us both breathing a sigh of relief and steeling ourselves for the challenges ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRebuilding a fair and humane asylum system from the wreckage of the Trump years will take time and a lot of hard work, but some significant changes must be made immediately to alleviate people\u2019s suffering at our border,\u201d Nezer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many liberal Jewish Americans opposed Trump\u2019s anti-immigrant policies after he took office. After Biden\u2019s election, advocates expressed concern that they might struggle to exert similar levels of grassroots pressure on the new administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden and his team said they are still committed to some immediate actions after taking office. Rice said that Biden will send a bill to Congress on his first day as president proposing the creation of a legal path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. And Sullivan said the administration will seek to end agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua that allowed the U.S. to force migrants who had passed through those countries to return there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n