What changes to immigration enforcement did the Biden administration implement in 2021–2024?
Executive summary
The Biden administration (2021–2024) reversed many Trump-era restrictions, expanded legal pathways (refugee resettlement and parole) and issued new enforcement priorities that focused removals on national-security and serious-crime cases; DHS terminated the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) and revoked key proclamations early in 2021 [1] [2] [3]. At the same time the administration confronted historic border pressures—official counts report millions of “encounters” (8.6 million through Oct. 2024 in one analysis) and roughly 1.5 million removals in FY2021–FY2024, while asylum and docket changes in 2023–24 tightened eligibility and sped some cases [4] [5].
1. Reversals of Trump-era entry limits and travel bans
Within days and weeks of inauguration the White House revoked major Trump proclamations limiting entry and travel (including Proclamation 10014 and the COVID-era “travel ban” restrictions) and directed visa processing to resume, a restoration documented by DHS and NAFSA resources [2] [6]. Those early moves signaled a policy pivot toward restoring traditional legal immigration channels [2] [6].
2. Ending the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)
DHS suspended and then formally terminated the “Remain in Mexico” or MPP program on June 1, 2021, stopping new enrollments and beginning processing of many people with pending cases for entry—one of the clearest concrete program-level reversals of the prior administration [1].
3. New enforcement priorities and internal ICE guidance
The Biden administration rescinded the Trump-era broad enforcement executive order and issued new DHS enforcement priorities that focused enforcement resources on those who threaten national security, border security, or public safety; updated enforcement guidelines went into effect November 29, 2021, and ICE issued guidance to prosecutors in April 2022 on how to apply that discretion [3]. Those policy shifts reduced emphasis on low-level offenses and informed who was placed into removal proceedings [3].
4. Expansion of humanitarian and parole pathways, and refugee rebuilding
The administration significantly increased refugee resettlement and the use of parole to admit people fleeing crises—regional resettlement from Latin America and the Caribbean rose from about 500 in FY2021 to 6,300 in FY2023, and refugee admissions reached historically higher levels by FY2024 according to migration analysts [7] [8]. The administration also created multiple humanitarian parole programs intended to relieve pressure at the southwest border [7].
5. Enforcement numbers and border pressure: competing narratives
Despite policy reforms, arrivals and enforcement activity remained large. Migration Policy Institute tabulations show roughly 8.6 million migrant encounters from Jan. 2021 through Oct. 2024, and MPI reported approximately 1.5 million removals in FY2021–FY2024—figures that illustrate simultaneous high migration flows and sustained removals under Biden [4]. Congressional critics framed the administration as releasing large numbers into the interior and pointed to low percentages placed in expedited removal in certain periods; a House resolution cited that only 6.8% of 5.6 million encounters through Aug. 31, 2023, entered expedited removal proceedings [9]. Both perspectives are present in the sources [4] [9].
6. Asylum rules, new dockets and expedited case handling
Facing caseload backlogs and political pressure, the administration introduced new case-processing approaches in 2024—including a dedicated “new arrivals” docket and proposed rules to deny asylum to applicants with criminal records posing national-security or public-safety threats—measures designed to speed decisions and remove certain claimants more quickly [5]. Migration-policy observers note these moves as part of a broader effort to both increase processing capacity and tighten adjudication standards in practice [5] [4].
7. Political and legal pushback, and limits of executive action
The administration’s mix of humanitarian pathways and enforcement changes produced intense partisan contention and lawsuits from Republican-led states—party-line Congressional resolutions and legal challenges to rulemaking and program design underscore that many reforms were implemented administratively, not legislatively, and thus remained vulnerable to court challenges and congressional opposition [9] [8] [3].
8. What the sources do not settle
Available sources document major programmatic moves (MPP termination, proclamation revocations, enforcement-priority guidance, expanded parole and resettlement, and new dockets), as well as aggregate encounter and removal counts. Sources do not mention a comprehensive single statute enacted in 2021–2024 that overhauled legal immigration; they also do not provide a definitive, universally accepted metric proving the administration “released millions” without processing beyond the contested statistics cited by Congress—both claims remain presented in competing ways within the reporting [9] [4].
Contextual takeaway: the Biden years produced clear administrative reversals of Trump-era entry restrictions, substantial expansion of refugee and parole pathways, and a recalibration of ICE enforcement toward serious criminals and threats—while coping with record border encounters that pushed the administration to tighten asylum screening and speed case processing amid persistent political and legal disputes [2] [1] [3] [5] [4].