Joe Biden Vows To Bring Back US Visa Lottery

Joe Biden, Democratic Party candidate in the US presidential election, has promised to make America more friendly to immigrants in his first 100 days in office.

According to policy information provided on his campaign website, Joebiden.com, Biden said if elected in November as President of the United States of America, he will reverse the ban placed on countries such as Nigeria with predominantly Muslim population, which prevents them from immigrating to the US.

Recall that in February 2020, President Donald Trump added Nigeria to a list of 13 nations facing stringent travel restrictions.

The list also include Myanmar, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan, Eritrea, and Tanzania due to activities of extremist Islamic groups in the countries.

It banned citizens of these countries from moving to the United States through the diversity visa lottery, which grants green cards to as many as 50,000 people a year.

Biden, who is Trumps biggest challenger for the top job, said he will, “End these policies starting with Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols, and restore our asylum laws so that they do what they should be designed to do–protect people fleeing persecution and who cannot return home safely…Biden will dramatically increase U.S. government resources to support migrants awaiting assessment of their asylum claims and to the organizations providing for their needs.

“The Trump administration’s anti-Muslim bias hurts our economy, betrays our values, and can serve as a powerful terrorist recruiting tool. Prohibiting Muslims from entering the country is morally wrong, and there is no intelligence or evidence that suggests it makes our nation more secure. It is yet another abuse of power by the Trump administration designed to target primarily black and brown immigrants. Biden will immediately rescind the Muslim bans."

He also vowed to protect “Dreamers” — undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children but have been productive members of society by going to school or doing the US military.

“Dreamers and their parents should have a roadmap to citizenship through legislative immigration reform. But in the meantime, Biden will remove the uncertainty for Dreamers by reinstating the DACA program, and he will explore all legal options to protect their families from inhumane separation. Biden will also ensure Dreamers are eligible for federal student aid (loans, Pell grants) and are included in his proposals to provide access to community college without debt and invest in HBCU/Hispanic Serving Institution/Minority Serving Institutions, which will help Dreamers contribute even more to our economy”.

As part of his plan for immigration, Biden said he would order an immediate review of Temporary Protected Status for vulnerable populations, who cannot find safety in their countries ripped apart by violence or disaster.

He said the Trump administration’s politically-motivated decisions to rescind protected status for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing countries impacted by war and natural disasters — without regard for current country conditions — is a recipe for disaster.

“Biden will protect TPS and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) holders from being returned to countries that are unsafe. TPS/DED holders who have been in the country for an extended period of time and built lives in the U.S. will also be offered a path to citizenship through legislative immigration reform,” his website says.

The former US Vice President is also promising to reform the temporary visa system to eliminate limit on employment-based visas by country.

“High skilled temporary visas should not be used to disincentivize recruiting workers already in the U.S. for in-demand occupations. An immigration system that crowds out high-skilled workers in favor of only entry-level wages and skills threatens American innovation and competitiveness. Biden will work with Congress to first reform temporary visas to establish a wage-based allocation process and establish enforcement mechanisms to ensure they are aligned with the labor market and not used to undermine wages. Then, Biden will support expanding the number of high-skilled visas and eliminating the limits on employment-based visas by country, which create unacceptably long backlogs,” according to his campaign organisation.

Biden said will revisit the Diversity Visa Lottery, which Trump “set his sights on abolishing” to ensure that immigrants everywhere have the chance of becoming US citizens.

He said, “This is a program that brings up to 50,000 immigrants from underrepresented countries to the U.S. each year. He has disparaged the system as a “horror show” and repeatedly misrepresents how the lottery is administered while demonizing and insulting with racist overtones those who receive the visas. Diversity preferences are essential to preserving a robust and vibrant immigration system. As president, Biden will reaffirm our core values and preserve the critical role of diversity preferences to ensure immigrants everywhere have the chance to legally become U.S. citizens.”

He added that he would defend the naturalisation process for green card holders.

“A Biden administration will streamline and improve the naturalization process to make it more accessible to qualified green cardholders. The Trump administration has made it far too difficult for qualifying green cardholders to obtain citizenship. Quite simply, this is wrong. Biden will restore faith in the citizenship process by removing roadblocks to naturalization and obtaining the right to vote, addressing the application backlog by prioritizing the adjudication workstream and ensuring applications are processed quickly, and rejecting the imposition of unreasonable fees," his website said.

Biden also said he will create a new visa category allowing cities in the US struggling with shrinking populations to apply for immigrants who can come and support the region's economic development strategy.