Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden administration’s task force for reuniting migrant families separated by the Trump administration will allow separated families “the option of being reunified either in the United States or their country of origin,” NBC News reports.

Mayorkas called the separation of thousands of migrant families under the Trump administration “the most powerful and heartbreaking example of the cruelty that preceded this administration.”

Matthew Yglesias: “What Democrats should want on immigration is not continuation of the cozy status quo, but a grand bargain that includes legal status and a path to citizenship for millions of long-settled undocumented people. And what they should want for workers is that anyone who has a job in America makes enough to live in America.”

“Bipartisan talks on immigration are nonexistent at the moment, while negotiations over a national minimum wage are fraught. A wage/enforcement deal that makes life uncomfortable for the Chamber of Commerce might be exactly the thing that drags Republicans back to the table on immigration while allowing the Biden administration to deliver on its promise of a wage increase.”

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who represents a district on the Mexican border, warned the Biden administration against easing up too much on unauthorized immigrants, citing their impact on his constituents, local hospitals and their potential to spread the coronavirus, Axios reports.

Said Cuellar: “You just can’t say, ‘Yeah, yeah, let everybody in’ — because then we’re affected down there at the border.”

President Joe Biden reopened the country on Wednesday to people seeking green cards, ending a ban on legal immigration that President Donald Trump imposed last spring, citing what he said was the need to protect American jobs during the pandemic, the New York Times reports.

Biden said that the ban did “not advance the interests of the United States.”

CNN: Here are the executive actions Biden has signed so far.

Attorney General Nominee Merrick Garland isn’t shying away from criticizing the Trump administration in his confirmation hearing.

Said Garland, on family separation policy at the Mexican border: “I think that the policy was shameful. I can’t imagine anything worse than tearing parents from their children.”

“Democrats will formally file President Biden’s immigration bill on Thursday, facing steep odds as they attempt to create the first major path to U.S. citizenship for undocumented immigrants in nearly 35 years,” the Washington Post reports.

Axios: “The bill is unlikely to win needed Republican support, but represents the aggressive immigration priorities of President Biden. It will also kick off the immigration debate on Capitol Hill, which could lead to less sweeping immigration reforms.”

“The bill introduction is likely to spark debate over other immigration bills that touch on parts of Biden’s plan, but are more palatable with a 50-50 split Senate.”

CNN: “Biden’s bill will also likely join a series of other immigration measures that are narrowly focused on undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children, are in the US under a form of humanitarian relief, and are working in agriculture — setting up a dizzying number of attempts to provide legalization to the undocumented population…”

“Biden’s bill, titled U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, addresses the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the US, boosts border technology, and targets the root causes of migration, according to a White House fact sheet.”

“The Biden administration on Friday announced plans for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico for their next immigration court hearings to be allowed into the United States while their cases proceed,” the AP reports.

President Joe Biden has rescinded the emergency order used by former President Donald Trump to justify construction of the border wall, The Hill reports.

Said Biden, in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border was unwarranted.”

He added: “I have also announced that it shall be the policy of my administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall, and that I am directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to that end.”

Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Biden issued an executive order on his first day in office to stop construction of the border wall temporarily … Stopping construction for good, however, is complicated.”

“Recently, government lawyers have withdrawn their requests for immediate possession in some of the cases. However, the cases remain pending, with several hearings set for March.”

New York Times: “More than 1,000 people who had been detained after crossing have been released into the country in recent days in a swift reversal from the Trump administration’s near shutdown of the border. Many more people are gathering on the Mexican side, aggravating conditions there and testing America’s ability and willingness to admit migrants during a pandemic.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Saturday that the Biden administration has suspended and begun the process to terminate Trump-era migration agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, CNN reports.

New York Times: “President Biden’s expected announcement on Thursday that he intends to allow more refugees into the United States this year will bring him face to face with a policy barrier left by his predecessor: a gutted resettlement system unable to quickly process the tens of thousands of desperate people whom Mr. Biden would like to let in.”

“Stripped of personnel and weakened by the coronavirus, the government’s refugee program is simply not equipped to welcome a flood of foreigners fleeing disaster, officials and experts said.”

“The Biden administration on Tuesday announced steps to address harm to thousands of families that were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, expanding efforts to quickly undo relentless changes to immigration policy over the last four years,” the AP reports.

“President Joe Biden planned to sign orders on family separation, border security and legal immigration, bringing to nine the number of executive actions on immigration during his first two weeks in office. Details were thin, but the moves aim to reverse many of former President Donald Trump’s policies to deter immigration, both legal and illegal.”

CNN: Biden to sign immigration executive orders and establish task force to reunite separated families.

New Yorker: “Trump transformed immigration through hundreds of quiet measures. Can they be uncovered and reversed?”

President Joe Biden “is delaying by at least a few days a series of executive actions on immigration that were anticipated as early as this week, including the reversal of Trump-era asylum policies and a plan to reunite migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border,” CBS News reports.

“The Biden administration on Wednesday made its first move to set the nation’s immigration courts in a new direction, announcing plans to replace the official who has overseen the system for nearly four years,” Politico reports.