Biden administration could see ‘thousands’ of Trump deportations reversed

Military families will be among those to have their cases revisited

Families depart the airport after arriving on an ICE deportation flight from the US on 22 August, 2019 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. The Biden administration could see thousands of deportation decisions made under the Trump administration reversed. (Getty Images)

President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing forward with a plan that could see the reversal of thousands of deportations carried out under former President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.

In a statement shared with The Independent on Tuesday, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said the administration “is committed to reviewing the cases of individuals whose removals under the prior administration failed to live up to our highest values.”

“As part of this commitment, the Department is developing a rigorous, systematic approach to review these cases and is working to put in place an orderly process for individuals to make their claims,” they said, adding: “ This work takes time, but we are moving swiftly to put these processes in place and value the perspective of stakeholders as we continue to collaborate on rebuilding our immigration system.”

Among those whose cases are expected to be subject to review are military families and veterans, with a number of returns of military family members having already been facilitated, according to Politico, which first reported the story.

Young immigrants who were excluded from protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme (which allows people who were brought to the US as children to live and work in the country without fear of deportation) due to Mr Trump’s efforts to axe the initiative, will also be eligible to have their cases reviewed.

The administration may also broaden its considerations to immigrants who have spouses, children or other family members who are US citizens and can prove their families were dramatically impacted by the deportation of a family member, according to Politico.

Speaking with the publication, Jason Rochester, who voted for Mr Trump in the 2016 US election, said he approved of the former president’s law-and-order message until his family found themselves on the wrong side of it.

Mr Rochester had not imagined that his wife, a stay-at-home mother without any criminal record, who was born in Mexico, would end up blocked from entering the US under Mr Trump’s immigration crackdown.

However, after his wife, Cecilia González Carmona, voluntarily returned to Mexico with plans to come back to the US, she was denied re-entry, even after the couple’s young son was diagnosed with cancer.

As five-year-old Ashton had his kidney removed and underwent 10 months of radiation and chemotherapy, his mother was barred from crossing into the US to be with him.

According to Politico, she asked the Trump administration for emergency permission, or humanitarian parole, to go back to the US to help care for her child.

However, she was told that officials had identified no “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit” to justify her return.

“I can’t stand to think about the things Ashton used to ask me when he was sick, why she wasn’t there,” Mr Rochester told Politico.

Now, his wife could be among hundreds to see the decision in their immigration cases overturned under the Biden administration.