On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden was inaugurated to become the 46th president of the United States. In his first month, Biden passed executive orders of his own and reversed some of Donald Trump’s policies. The most notable ones being orders regarding immigration at the U.S. borders, plans for COVID-19 relief, and plans to combat global climate change which were all parts of his 100 day plan.

Immigration Policies

One of Joe Biden’s first orders was to reverse a policy put in place by former president Donald Trump regarding his “zero tolerance” immigration policy at the U.S. and Mexico border which separated many families at the border. Biden’s plan is to have a task force working to issue visas to these families in order to reunite them. In regards to Trump’s Muslim ban which blocked travelers from 13 mostly Muslim-majority and African countries. On inauguration day, Biden issued an executive order removing those restrictions put in play by Trump and on January 24, 2021, Biden also paused funding for the border wall which was a main focus of Trump’s presidency and has made plans to redirect the funding used for the border wall elsewhere. To help lower income immigrants obtain their citizenship in the U.S., Biden said he plans to review the “public charge” rule which can possibly deny an immigrant who would likely need government assistance to cover their living expenses. 

COVID-19

During the CNN Town Hall in Wisconsin on Feb.16, 2021, President Biden answered questions regarding his plans for COVID-19 relief. When he was asked when vaccines will be readily available for every American, Biden said he believes they will be ready by July this year. In President Biden’s first month, he has been able to help the process of administering more than 100 million vaccines by allowing for people to get vaccinated for free and by making sure there are enough spaces readily available for people to go to. He has proposed a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package for which he hopes will be passed by Congress to help Americans in need. When Biden was asked when the country will be back to normal during the CNN Town Hall, he did not promise, but stated that with his plans for COVID-19 relief and plans for administering the vaccine he believes that “by next Christmas…we’ll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today.” In comparison to former President Trump’s actions to combat for COVID-19, he made false claims about the virus on multiple occasions including on Feb. 27, 2020, when he claimed that COVID-19 would “disappear” like a miracle and on June 2, 2020, when he claimed that the virus was “fading away” before his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma when in fact, the country was seeing more than 20,000 daily new cases at the time. 

Climate Change

A main push in President Biden’s campaign was how serious he felt about climate change as he deemed climate change an “existential threat to humanity” during an interview with Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama. One of the first actions that President Biden took to combat climate change was rejoining the Paris Agreement that Trump previously left during his presidency. In addition to rejoining the Paris Agreement, Biden has also established a “National Climate Task Force” across 21 federal agencies. Biden deemed climate change as an essential element in U.S. foreign policy, and is developing a climate finance plan in order to direct more funding for future plans to combat climate change.