WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is pausing deportations of certain noncitizens for 100 days so it can increase its focus on national security, public safety, and border security.

The order, which takes effect Friday, was included in a memo from Acting Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske on Wednesday, just hours after President Joe Biden was inaugurated. The letter was addressed to the heads of Customs and Border Protection; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Citizenship and Immigration Services.

DHS’ chief of staff will coordinate a department-wide review of its enforcement policies during the deportation moratorium.

“The United States faces significant operational challenges at the southwest border as it is confronting the most serious global public health crisis in a century,” Pekoske wrote in the memo. “In light of those unique circumstances, the Department must surge resources to the border in order to ensure safe, legal and orderly processing, to rebuild fair and effective asylum procedures that respect human rights and due process, to adopt appropriate public health guidelines and protocols, and to prioritize responding to threats to national security, public safety, and border security.”

Pekoske is serving as acting Homeland Security secretary while Biden’s nominee, Alejandro Mayorkas, awaits Senate confirmation.

Deportations can continue in certain circumstances, including for anyone who poses a threat to national security; anyone released from prison after being convicted of an aggravated felony and is determined to be a public safety threat; and anyone who illegally entered the country after Nov. 1, the memo said.

“Due to limited resources, DHS cannot respond to all immigration violations or remove all persons unlawfully in the United States,” Pekoske wrote. “DHS must implement civil immigration enforcement based on sensible priorities and changing circumstances. DHS’s civil immigration enforcement priorities are protecting national security, border security, and public safety.”

Biden on Wednesday released an immigration bill that would provide an eight-year path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. without legal status. It’s a stark contrast to former President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies that sought to leave anyone in the country illegally exposed to deportation.