BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION CAN DO A LOT WITH EXECUTIVE ACTIONS

The Biden-Harris Administration can make needed policy changes through executive actions or legislation. These two approaches are complementary and should both be used. Getting progressive legislation passed by Congress will be difficult but possible with narrow control of both the Senate and the House. However, there are literally hundreds of important executive actions that the Biden-Harris Administration could take on day one (or shortly thereafter) that are well within its existing authority.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) issued 99 executive orders in his first 100 days and 3,721 over the course of his presidency. Some of them were monumental, such as the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration, which addressed a major infrastructure issue, and the Civil Works Administration, which created millions of jobs to address the unemployment of the Great Depression. These times call for the Biden-Harris Administration to be bold and to aggressively use executive orders to address the serious problems facing our country. Similar to FDR’s situation, Biden and Harris are facing a country in need of relief from a serious recession and high unemployment coupled with a need for major infrastructure investments. They also, of course, have to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and its effects.

The American Prospect magazine and the Biden-Sanders unity taskforce (which was created at the end of the Democratic primaries last summer) have identified 277 executive actions that the Biden-Harris Administration could take immediately. All of them are policies that have broad support within the Democratic Party. Many of them simply more fully implement or better enforce current laws. They would take important steps toward addressing important problems. [1] [2]

In summary, the Biden-Harris Administration could, without having to wait for Congress:

Revamp many aspects of our immigration system (see specific examples below),
Address climate change along with energy and environmental issues (see specific examples below),
Improve our education system and reduce the burden of student debt (see specific examples below),
Make our tax system and economy fairer (specific examples will be in my next post),
Make important reforms in the criminal justice system (specific examples will be in my next post),
Expand access to health care and lower drug prices (specific examples will be in my next post), and
Strengthen the safety net by expanding unemployment benefits as well as housing and food assistance (specific examples will be in my next post).

Specific executive actions could include:

Change immigration policies
- Enact a 100-day ban on deportations while reviewing current immigration and border practices
- Rescind the “Zero Tolerance” immigration policy, which is effectively a family separation policy
- Rescind policies limiting admissions of refugees and asylees
- End the freeze on issuing new green cards, which allow non-citizens to permanently live and work in the U.S.
- Rescind the declaration of an emergency for the purpose of funding a Mexico border wall
Address climate change, energy, and environmental issues
- Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement
- Re-protect federal land including reinstituting bans on mining and drilling
- Reinstate the Clean Power rule limiting carbon emissions from power plants
- Re-institute and then strengthen auto and truck emissions standards
- Reinstate the Cabinet-level Interagency Council on Environmental Justice
- Tighten regulations on the release of methane, sulfur dioxide, ozone, mercury, and coal ash
- Make all 3 million government vehicles at all levels of government zero-emission vehicles
- Buy clean energy and require federal contractors to do so as well
- Make home energy efficiency programs accessible for low-income households
- Establish a task force for planning the transition to clean energy including supports for displaced workers
Improve our education system
- Reduce student debt through various loan forgiveness programs and suspend debt payments during the pandemic
- Reinstate the program to eliminate racial disparities in school discipline
- End federal contracts with student loan servicers who have a history of misleading clients
- Encourage states to develop and adopt a “multiple measures” approach to assessment
- Appoint a federal task force to study charter schools’ impact on public education and make recommendations to strengthen public schools
- Aggressively enforce the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
- Facilitate pathways for early childhood educators to obtain higher education degrees
- Require for-profit colleges to demonstrate their return on investment before allowing their students to be eligible for federal student loans

Once President Biden and Vice President Harris have been inaugurated, I urge you to contact them and encourage them to act boldly using executive orders to improve racial and social justice as well as the economic well-being of every working American.

My next post will present examples of executive actions the Biden-Harris Administration could take on economic, criminal justice, health and health care, and other issues.

[1] Moran, M., 7/28/20, “The 277 policies for which Biden need not ask permission,” The American Prospect (https://prospect.org/day-one-agenda/277-policies-biden-need-not-ask-permission/)

[2] Dayen, D., Fall 2019, “The day one agenda” and related articles, The American Prospect (https://prospect.org/day-one-agenda)

THE UNDERMINING OF THE 2020 CENSUS

The 2020 Census is coming up soon and preparations for it are underway. You’ve probably heard about the controversy over the Trump administration’s effort to add a question on citizenship to the Census. Unfortunately, the politicization and undermining of the Census runs much deeper than just this question.

The Census is supposed to enumerate every person living in the U.S., regardless of whether they are a citizen or not. This is the Constitutional mandate of the Census. It’s used to determine boundaries for Congressional Districts and state legislative districts, as well as votes in the Electoral College (which, of course, elects the President). It’s also used every year to apportion $675 billion in federal funding for health care, schools, housing, and roads. Essentially every major U.S. institution uses Census data, from businesses analyzing markets to countless researchers analyzing demographics and driving policy decisions.

The 2010 Census was the most accurate one in history, but it over-counted white residents by almost 1% (e.g., people with more than one home) and under-counted Blacks by 2%, Hispanics by 1.5%, and Native Americans by 5% – failing to count 1.5 million residents of color. [1] The fairness and accuracy of the Census, as well as trust in it and its process, are essential elements of the core infrastructure of our democracy.

The undermining of an accurate count in the 2020 Census began in 2012 and has accelerated more recently. In 2012, Congress directed the Census Bureau, over the objections of the Obama White House, to spend less on the 2020 Census than it had on the 2010 Census, despite inflation and a population that was expected to grow by 25 million residents (about 8%). After Trump’s election in 2016, the Bureau’s budget was cut by another 10%, although some of that funding was just restored last month.

The Census Bureau’s Director resigned in June 2017 after Congressional budget cuts. The Deputy Director position was already vacant; however, the Trump administration has not yet nominated anyone to fill either of these posts. A rumored nominee was an academic without any Census experience who had supported racial and partisan gerrymandering of Congressional Districts. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has installed a “special adviser” at the Census Bureau who is from a partisan polling firm and who reports directly to the White House. These personnel issues undermine the Bureau’s ability to effectively run the 2020 Census.

Budget cuts have forced the Census Bureau to cancel crucial testing of the Census process. These tests are particularly important because for the first time the Census will be conducted primarily through on-line responses. Rather than mailing Census forms to every household, a postcard will be sent with instructions on how to fill out the on-line form. As in the past, Census workers, called enumerators, will visit households that don’t respond to the initial Census mailing to ensure the counting of those residents. Even though the initial response rate is likely to fall because of low-income or elders’ households that lack the technological capability to respond on-line, the number of enumerators has been cut by about 200,000, from 500,000 to 300,000. (Roughly a third of low-income households and a third of Black and Hispanic households lack Internet access and a computer.) The enumerators are also charged with finding and obtaining Census responses from residents who did not receive the mailing.

Budget cuts also forced the Census Bureau to cancel trial runs specifically designed to help it figure out how to reach hard-to-count populations. It also canceled two of three “dress rehearsals.” It has half as many field offices as it had in 2010. The development of the Bureau’s technology systems is behind schedule and the launch of its website is not scheduled until April 2020. Cybersecurity for the new on-line Census is a major concern as well. A group of 51 economists from across the country and across the political spectrum have written a letter to Congress supporting “robust funding of the 2020 Census sufficient to ensure a fair and accurate count of the U.S. population.” [2]

The budget cuts mean that the outreach and publicity the Census Bureau will do to encourage responding to the Census have been reduced substantially. Currently, the Bureau has only 40 employees working on outreach, compared with 120 at this point 10 years ago. States, cities, and private foundations are already working to fill this void, but they will be hard pressed to match the 2010 effort where the Census Bureau spent $340 million on promotional advertising.

As if these challenges to accurately counting every resident weren’t enough, the Trump administration recently announced its intention to add a question to the Census that would ask whether the respondent is a citizen. The Census Bureau was already concerned that the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant actions and rhetoric were going to make it harder to get an accurate count of immigrant residents, both documented and undocumented ones. A citizenship question will only exacerbate this challenge. Not only will non-citizens be less likely to respond to the Census, but citizens in the 16 million households with some undocumented members may refuse to respond out of fear of exposing their undocumented family members. [3]

The Trump administration says that getting citizenship data in the Census is necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act and prevent discrimination against minorities. This claim would be laughable if its implications weren’t so serious. There hasn’t been a question on citizenship on the Census for 70 years. [4] Furthermore, the American Community Survey, which is done annually with a statistically accurate sample that consists of 3.5 million residents, does have a question on citizenship that provides the data needed to analyze issues where citizenship information is needed.

The opposition to adding a question on citizenship has been swift and broad. Six former Census Bureau Directors who served under both Republicans and Democrats wrote a letter in opposition. Two dozen states and cities have announced a lawsuit aimed at blocking the inclusion of this question. [5] Normally, adding a question to the Census is a careful process with testing to determine effects on response rate and other factors. In this case, there is no opportunity to test the effect of adding this question given that very limited field testing is being done and that it is already underway.

An under-count of immigrants and people of color would shift economic and political power to rural, white, conservative populations. These effects would last for at least the next 10 years until the 2030 Census. California estimates that each resident who is not counted will cost the state $1,900 in federal funding each year. It receives about $77 billion annually in federal funding and could lose about $2 billion each year for the next 10 years if its low-income and immigrant populations are significantly under-counted. This could also cost the state one or two seats in the House of Representatives and in the Electoral College.

A significant under-count in the 2020 Census would undermine the commitment of our democracy to treat each resident fairly. The Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress, by significantly under-funding the Census, by adding a question on citizenship, through their anti-immigrant actions and rhetoric, and by refusing to use more accurate statistical techniques, seem to be working hard to under-count hard-to-reach populations. Not surprisingly, these low-income, minority, young, and student populations are the same ones they are trying to keep from voting through ID requirements and other steps that make voting more difficult. They appear to be more than happy to undermine the 2020 Census and our democracy to achieve political goals.

The Census has an extraordinary reputation for counting all residents regardless of income, race, ethnicity, or immigrant status. Undermining confidence in the integrity of the Census by politicizing the process will erode trust that is essential to a functioning democracy. [6]

I urge you to contact your members of Congress and urge them to support adequate funding for the Census, to oppose a question on citizenship, and to strongly advocate for as accurate a count of all residents as is possible. You can find your US Representative’s name and contact information at: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/. You can find your US Senators’ names and contact information at: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

[1] Berman, A., May/June 2018, “Hidden figures: How Donald Trump is rigging the Census,” Mother Jones (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/donald-trump-rigging-2020-census-undercounting-minorities-1/#)

[2] Economic Policy Institute, 4/2/18, “An open letter from 51 economists to Congress urging robust funding of the 2020 Census” (https://www.epi.org/publication/an-open-letter-from-51-economists-to-congress-urging-robust-funding-of-the-2020-census/)

[3] Loth, R., 4/9/18, “Turning the apolitical Census into an anti-immigrant tool,” The Boston Globe

[4] Cerbin, C. M., 3/27/18, “Citizenship question to be put back on the 2020 Census for first time in 70 years,” USA Today

[5] Kamp, J., & Adamy, J., 4/13/18, “Citizenship question rankles in trial run of 2020 Census,” Wall Street Journal

[6] Wines, M., 12/9/17, “With 2020 Census looming, worries about fairness and accuracy,” The New York Times

ICE IS ENGAGING IN TERRORISM

Terrorism is defined as the unlawful use or threat of violence or intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is using tactics that fit the definition of terrorism.

ICE agents are making arrests that are designed to create fear among immigrants, including legal immigrants, and to intimidate and traumatize them. For example, ICE agents are arresting immigrants at hearings where they are applying for legal status, at courthouses where immigrants are engaged with our criminal justice system, near schools, and even in hospitals.

ICE’s practice of separating children and parents is designed to instill fear and anxiety in parents. [1] It also traumatizes children, who are likely to have already been traumatized by the experiences that have led their parents to flee their home countries.

For parents seeking asylum, separating children from parents clearly violates US and international laws on the treatment of asylum-seekers. (See my previous post for examples.) For others, suits have been filed to have this practice declared illegal because it fails to provide due process for parents and children, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, among other things.

The resultant fear and intimidation are causing immigrant parents to avoid enrolling children in school or preschool programs (such as Head Start) and to avoid public programs that provide access to health care and healthy nutrition, including for pregnant women and infants.

In Massachusetts, ICE’s actions have inhibited immigrants’ participation in our criminal justice system, as victims, witnesses, and defendants. Arrests by ICE at courthouses and ICE’s treatment of immigrants in their custody have intimidated immigrants and prevented them from exercising their constitutional rights. As a result, victims are afraid to appear in court to seek relief or protection, and witnesses are reluctant to testify. [2]

Two lawsuits have been filed asking the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to bar ICE from making arrests in or near courthouses. Such arrests are happening on a weekly basis and have occurred at 24 courthouses around the state.

Furthermore, ICE has refused, even when ordered by a state judge, to bring immigrants in its custody to criminal proceedings where they are a defendant, a clear violation of a defendant’s rights. Because of ICE’s refusal to transport immigrants in its custody to court hearings or to meet court-ordered obligations, these immigrants have been denied access to our justice system, have been put in violation of their terms of probation, and have failed to receive court-ordered drug and mental health treatment.

These actions by ICE fit the definition of terrorism: the unlawful use or threat of violence or intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

ICE’s actions are clearly unlawful,
Its actions and the threat of them clearly intimidate civilians, and
The reason the Trump Administration is engaging in these actions is clearly the pursuit of political aims – to win the political support of a certain segment of the population and to meet campaign promises – because these actions don’t achieve meaningful policy goals in any significant or effective way.

[1] Hing, J., 3/15/18, “For Trump, cruelty is the point,” The Nation (https://www.thenation.com/article/for-trump-cruelty-is-the-point/)

[2] Johnson, A., 3/16/18, “ICE arrests at courts decried,” The Boston Globe

CRUELTY BY ICE

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s practice of detaining and often deporting undocumented immigrants who are leading up-standing, productive lives and have no criminal record is disturbing. However, even more disturbing is ICE’s practice of separating law abiding – and in some cases asylum-seeking – parents from their children, including quite young children.

In one case, four months ago, a mother and her seven-year-old daughter from the Congo, fleeing threats to their safety, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego and asked for asylum. Four days later, the mother was in a Southern California detention center, while her seven-year-old daughter was sent, without explanation, to a children’s detention center in Chicago. The government has filed no charges against them, nor alleged that they pose any kind of threat, nor contended that the mother was in any way unfit to take care of her young daughter. They have been permitted only infrequent phone calls and the girl is reported to have sobbed throughout each of the calls.

In another case, a Brazilian woman with a 14-year-old son sought asylum back in August. She was detained in Texas while her son was taken to a detention center in Chicago. In a third example, in November, a 30-year-old El Salvadoran arrived at the U.S. border with his infant son and asked for asylum. After a short detention, ICE officials took the 1-year-old son away from his father. The father remained in detention and for weeks he had no idea where his son had been taken. His son was subsequently released to the mother, while the father remained in custody. [1] This practice is not only inhumane, it violates US and international laws on the treatment of asylum-seekers.

The ACLU has filed a class-action lawsuit to compel ICE to reunite hundreds of parents and children, and to enjoin it from continuing the practice of separating children and parents. [2] No formal policy of separating parents from their children has been announced. However, administration officials have said that efforts are made to deter people from trying to enter the US and that one strategy is to separate children from their parents.

A complaint against the practice of separating children from parents has been filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General. [3] Separating children from their parents when there are no allegations of abuse or neglect or of parent criminality is cruel and unusual punishment. It is also traumatizing for children, especially young children, in the best of situations – and these are often families fleeing violence in their home countries, which is likely to have traumatized children already. Further traumatizing these children by separating them from their parents will probably harm these children – and perhaps their parents – for life with symptoms akin to post-traumatic stress disorder. To intentionally do this to any child is unthinkable; it is truly an affront to basic humanity.

Perhaps not quite as horrible, but nonetheless inhumane, is the detention, and deportation in some cases, of undocumented parents who are here in the US pursuing legalization, who have no criminal record, and who are long-time, productive members of their communities. For example, in January, a Providence mother of a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old was detained when she met with immigration officials to pursue permanent resident status because she is married to a US citizen – the father of her two children. Totally without warning, she was detained for nearly a month. This 30-year-old mother has been in the US since she was brought here by her parents when she was 3 years old. [4]

In the last year, at least 14 immigrants in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, who had applied for permanent residency, i.e., they were playing by the rules and were doing the right thing, have been detained. They are typically detained when they come to ICE for a scheduled appointment to pursue their residency application. Many are married to US citizens, which has traditionally been a common, straight-forward path to being granted permanent resident status. Arresting undocumented immigrants who are working with authorities on obtaining legal status is a new and aggressive tactic by ICE.

We must stop ICE’s inhumane separation of children from their parents. This practice traumatizes these children and has no humane rationale. Please sign this petition to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, and ask her to stop ICE’s practice of separating children and parents: https://action.momsrising.org/sign/Separating_Children_from_Mothers_at_the_Border_Inhumane/?akid=10559.2198800.aG1I1P&t=19

I also urge you to call, email, and / or write your federal elected officials and ask them to do everything they can to stop ICE’s inhumane practice of separating children from their parents. You can find your US Representative’s name and contact information at: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/. You can find your US Senators’ names and contact information at: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

[1] Harris, L.M., 12/21/17, “Our government must stop separating asylum-seeking families,” USA Today

[2] Merchant, N., 3/10/18, “ACLU files suit over family breakups,” The Boston Globe from the Associated Press

[3] LA Times Editorial Board, 3/5/18, “Separating children and parents at the border is cruel and unnecessary,” The LA Times

[4] Cramer, M., 3/12/18, “Detained and bewildered,” The Boston Globe