United States President-elect Joe Biden plans to kick start his new administration on Wednesday by signing a series of executive actions to roll back some of the policies put in place by his predecessor Donald Trump, AFP reported. The new policies will reverse Trump’s decisions on immigration, climate change and handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden will be sworn in on Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States after Vice President-elect Kamala Harris takes her vow.
Biden has developed a raft of decrees that he is authorised to issue on his first day in the Oval Office, including one rescinding the controversial travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries, his aides said. Shortly after taking office in 2017, Trump had issued an executive order that banned travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the US. After legal challenges, the Supreme Court upheld a revised version of the ban and it has since then been expanded to cover 13 countries, according to Reuters.
Officials told reporters that Biden also plans to immediately propose an immigration bill to Congress. It will provide an eight-year pathway to citizenship to millions of undocumented migrants living in the country.
Biden will also halt construction of the wall that Trump ordered on the US-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration. Days before leaving the office, Trump had hailed the wall as a major accomplishment.
The new orders will also include reversing Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord with more than 174 countries. He will issue a mask mandate for federal property and interstate travel to contain the coronavirus spread.
In a statement, his aides said Biden “will take action – not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration – but also to start moving our country forward”.
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