Biden takes office with a series of challenges

Joe Biden will begin his presidential term with a declaration of intent in the form of a battery of measures, ranging from reincorporating the United States to the Paris Agreements against climate change and the World Health Organization (WHO) to suspending the construction of the wall on the border with Mexico.

Biden’s team announced these steps calling them “historic” and making clear the will of the still president-elect to reverse the legacy of his predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump. The former Democratic vice president has already outlined some of these initiatives throughout the campaign and after the elections.

“Changing the course” of the coronavirus pandemic is one of its priority objectives, for which Biden, who has already received the two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, will urge the population to wear a mask for at least 100 days. He will also enact an executive order to compel its use in all federal facilities.

Biden understands that the WHO continues to be “key” in the worldwide coordination of the fight against COVID-19, against the criteria of Trump, who accused the international agency of favoring China’s version of the origin of the virus. For this reason, the United States will reverse its departure and even send a delegate, epidemiologist Anthony Fauci, to the January 21 board of directors.

In terms of climate change, the most symbolic measure of the new Administration will be to re-commit the United States to the Paris Agreement, with a view to retaking the lost “global leadership”, while also foreseeing economic gestures that go from the extension of student loan payments to the extension of the moratorium on evictions, assuming that the pandemic has worsened the financial situation of many households.

“Racial equality” is among the objectives of Biden, who has set himself the objective of analyzing ways with which the authorities can avoid discrimination against minorities, also in the police field.

In terms of immigration policy, the new US president aspires to “preserve and strengthen” the spokesperson for the ‘dreamers’, as the immigrants who came to the United States as children are known and who, with Trump in the White House, have seen even their permanence in the country at risk. He also renounces the reinforcement of the wall on the border with Mexico, a symbol of the immigration doctrine of the current president.

Biden will also repeal the entry ban for travelers from Muslim-majority countries, on the understanding that it stigmatizes certain people because of their religion and origin, even generating “xenophobia.”

The new president of the United States aspires, in general terms, “not only to reverse the most serious damages of the Trump Administration, but also to begin to move the country forward.” His team explains that these are “direct” measures that make clear not only Biden’s willingness to fulfill his promises to the US electorate, but also to remain “within his constitutional role.”

K. Tovar

Source: dpa