Joe Biden plans immediate orders on immigration, COVID, climate

Aides to the president elect say 15 executive orders will be immediately issued after he is sworn in on Wednesday.

Aljazeera – In his first hours as president, Joe Biden will aim to strike at the heart of President Donald Trump’s policy legacy, signing a series of executive actions that reverse his predecessor’s orders on immigration, climate change, and handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden plans to kick off his new administration on Wednesday with orders to restore the United States to the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization, aides said.

The new president “will take action – not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration – but also to start moving our country forward”, the aides said in a statement.

Biden will sign 15 orders and actions hours after being sworn in as US leader to break from policies of departing Trump and set new paths on immigration, the environment, fighting COVID-19 and the economy, they said.

In first-day moves, he will end Trump’s much-assailed ban on visitors from several majority-Muslim countries and halt construction of the wall that Trump ordered on the US-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration.

He will also set a mask mandate on federal properties to stem the spread of COVID-19; restore protections of nature reserves removed by Trump; and seek freezes on evictions and protection for millions behind on their mortgages because of the pandemic.

He also plans to send a bill to Congress to revamp immigration policies and give millions of undocumented migrants living in the country a path to citizenship that the Trump administration denied.