Biden Issues Executive Actions Promoting Criminal Justice Reform, Combating COVID-19

President Biden has issued many executive actions within his first week in office. Several of these actions relate directly to criminal justice reform and immigration policy. One executive order ends federal use of private prisons. Another executive action prevents visitors who have traveled to high-risk COVID-19 zones from entering the United States. These high-risk zones include the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, and South Africa. A third executive action pushes back against discriminatory housing practices and policies that have disproportionally affected low-income and minority communities for decades.

In one executive order, President Biden mandates that the Department of Justice not renew any contracts with private prisons moving forward. The order strives to reduce profit-based incentives to increase incarceration.  

David Fathi, director of the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, said of the EO, “Today's executive order validates something we've been saying for years: No one should profit from the human misery that is caused by mass incarceration. Prison privatization increases the potential for mistreatment and abuse of incarcerated people, and this move by the Biden administration will start curtailing this insidious practice.” 

President Biden has also issued a proclamation that bans immigrants and non-immigrants from entering the United States if they have been to high-risk areas within 14 days of coming to the United States. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki explained that, “With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel.”

Another executive action is entitled “Memorandum on Redressing Our Nation’s and the Federal Government’s History of Discriminatory Housing Practices and Policies.”

Acting Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Matthew Ammon said this executive action “Is a vital step toward redressing the federal government’s legacy of housing discrimination and securing equal access to housing opportunity for all. Racially discriminatory housing practices and policies have kept communities of color from accessing safe, high-quality housing and the chance to build wealth that comes through homeownership.”

While social justice leaders have praised many of Biden’s executive actions, some have argued more change is necessary.

Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party and an organizer with the Movement for Black Lives and the Frontline, explained, “While these are a good first step, no set of executive orders alone is going to revoke structural oppression. Historically, whenever this country made major gains around racial justice and equity, it was because social movements led the government. Significant movement around racial justice and equity has never come from the White House, but we are encouraged they’re paying attention. Our social movements still have a critical role to play in all of this.”