Bianca Harkless
Editor-In-Chief
Following the January 20th Inauguration of President Joe Biden, President Biden has signed a series of executive orders, which would change or undo things that President Donald J. Trump put into action during his time in the white house. @POTUS on Twitter posted a picture documenting the signing of the executive orders. Some of these documents included rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, mandating masks, introducing a new immigration bill, reversing the travel ban on certain muslim countries and re-engaging the world health organization. Biden also launched the federal initiative to advance racial equality nationwide.
One of the more taut topics from President Trump’s administration was the muslim/travel ban. While the original executive order was highly contested and used to demonize marginal groups in differing political parties, the travel ban was upheld by the United States Supreme Court. Quoting directly from the Proclamation on Ending Discriminatory Band on Entry to The United States stated by President Biden, “The previous administration enacted a number of Executive Orders and Presidential Proclamations that prevented certain individuals from entering the United States — first from primarily Muslim countries, and later, from largely African countries. Those actions are a stain on our national conscience and are inconsistent with our long history of welcoming people of all faiths and no faith at all.” President Biden’s repeal will have a large impact on the United States. The executive order ensured the eligibility for immigrants who had previously applied for a visa and were denied the basis of the suspension. This is one way that the Biden Administration claims to be supporting racial equality on a nationwide scale.
President Joe Biden has been talking about a new imigration bill for an extended period of time. Although the exact time the new president mentioned his idea of a new immigration bill, there is a video of him talking about an idea for it during one of the presidential debates. The bill, known as the US Citizenship Act of 2021, would give undocumented immigrants an eight-year path to citizenships, according to unitedwestay.org. While there is still so much unknown about the document, a lot of controversy has already formed due to it.
The Paris Climate Agreement, originally called the Paris Climate Accord, is a legally binding climate change treaty calling for economic and social transformation. There are a series of nationally determined contributions that countries in the agreement are supposed to partake in to reduce their Greenhouse Gas emissions in order to help the environment. President Donald Trump announced that the US would be pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement on June 1st of 2017 at the Rose Garden Ceremony, claiming that he would not “subject our citizens to harsh economic restrictions…” in terms of how much money the United States would be putting into the agreement. The decision to remove the United States from the agreement faced backlash from environmental enthusiasts and other groups. President Biden, who was in office the first time America joined the Paris Climate Agreement, decided that it is not only in the best interest of the people, but for the environment to rejoin.
Biden has also renewed support for the World Health Organization in order to stop and prevent COVID-19. The World Health Organization, WHO, is a group of people who are “building a better, healthier future for people all over the world.”according to their website. President Biden has also mandated wearing masks while on federal property as an act to slow the spread of COVID-19, though it has no power at a state or local level. The thought is that if the President enforces the idea to some extent, the people will follow his lead. There have been a series of plans rumored as to how long the mask mandate will happen for, but there seems to be no clear cut answer to that.
In conclusion, President Joe Biden came out of his inauguration working hard to do what he believes is best for America. He believes that in order to make America the best country it can be, he has to reinstate mandatory masks on federal property, renewing our relationship with WHO, as well as putting us back into the Paris Climate agreement. He has put out an eight-year plan for reimaging immigration laws as well as reversing the muslim/travel ban, furthering what people have called building a racially equality nationwide. While it might be easy to check just one source, we here at The Eagle’s Eye encourage you to look into the materials and form your own opinion!
Image Credit: Manny Becerra Unsplash
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