President Biden will sign executive orders on immigration next week instead of Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed in a briefing Thursday afternoon.

What You Need To Know

  • Biden will no longer sign executive orders on immigration Friday, instead delaying them to next week

  • The orders are expected to include a reversal of asylum restrictions imposed by Presiden Trump and a task force to reuinied separated families

  • Biden made some immigration changes via executive order on his first day, including the repeal of the travel ban

  • His more sweeping proposal for immigration reform includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, sparking criticism from Republican lawmakers

The orders are expected to include a rollback of strict limits on asylum eligibility imposed under former president Donald Trump; notably, a reversal of the public charge rule and a task force to reunite families separated at the border.

They may also include an order to boost the refugee admissions cap to 125,000 for this year. President Trump set the number at 15,000 last fall, the lowest since the U.S. established a system for accepting refugees in 1980.

Friday was tentatively scheduled to be “immigration” day, following other issue-centric days in Biden’s first week, such as the health care actions he signed Thursday or the climate orders he focused on on Wednesday. 

The immigration orders are the first to be pushed back, and they coincide with a delay in the Senate confirmation of Biden’s nominee for Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. 

But White House officials said the calendar that included immigration as next on the schedule was a draft only, and Press Secretary Jen Psaki said to expect an update in the coming days.

“Get some sleep this weekend. We’ll have more to say next week on immigration — the president will,” Psaki told reporters Thursday. 

“Sometimes things change,” she added. “It will be next week.”

The forthcoming orders will follow other reversals of Trump’s immigration policy that Biden signed on day one, including a repeal of the travel ban and the rescindment of funds for construction of a border wall.

He’s also proposed a sweeping immigration reform bill that, among other changes, would establish an eight-year path to citizenship for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S.

It’s that plan — and its lack of specific border security measures — that led to tough questions for Biden’s DHS nominee, Mayorkas, in his confirmation hearing with the Senate Homeland Security Committee last week.

Sen.. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called Biden’s proposal an “amnesty plan” and pressed Mayorkas one whether the plan would drive people toward the southern border.

“I don’t think [the push factor’s] severity can be overstated,” Mayorkas said. “When loving parents are willing to send their young child along to traverse Mexico to reach the dangerous southern border … I think we need to address the push factor as the gravest factor to irregular migration.”

Hawley tried to block Mayorkas’ fast-track confirmation, but now the DHS nominee is set to get a full Senate vote Monday evening after a procedural delay.