US President Joe Biden has signed a string of executive orders, memorandums and directives that will reverse some of former President Donald Trump’s most divisive policies, including rescinding the so-called “Muslim ban”, re-joining the Paris climate accord, and ending the process to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO).
On his first day of office, President Biden signed 15 executive actions that his team said aimed to “reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration.”
The President told reporters in the Oval Office that there was “no time to waste.”
“Some of the executive actions I’m going to be signing today are going to help change the course of the COVID crisis, we’re going to combat climate change in a way that we haven’t done so far and advance racial equity and support other underserved communities.”
President Biden has promised to make the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 400,000 people across the country, a priority.
To that effect, he signed an order to institute a 100-day mask mandate across the US. The executive order asked Americans to do their “patriotic duty and mask up for 100 days.”
The President also appointed a COVID-19 coordinator who will report directly to him to manage a national response to the pandemic and help coordinate a unified national response to the surging pandemic.
President Biden further announced that the US would remain a member of the WHO, and that Dr Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, would attend the ongoing WHO Executive Board meeting as the head of the US delegation.
The Trump administration in July of last year notified Congress and the United Nations that the US was formally withdrawing from the WHO. The decision would have gone into effect in July.
Trump justified the decision by saying the WHO “failed to make the requested and greatly needed reforms” and accusing the group of helping China cover up the origins of the novel coronavirus.
President Biden also rescinded the so-called “Muslim ban”, an executive order Mr Trump signed in 2017 that banned travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the US.
The ban was changed several times amid legal challenges and ultimately upheld by the US Supreme Court in 2018.
“The president put an end to the Muslim ban – a policy rooted in religious animus and xenophobia,” Biden’s White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during a news briefing.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations welcomed the decision as “an important first step toward undoing the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant policies of the previous administration”.
“It is an important fulfilment of a campaign pledge to the Muslim community and its allies,” the group’s Executive Director, Nihad Awad, said in a statement.
The US President also announced that the country will once again become a party to the Paris Agreement.
The move to rejoin the international treaty on climate change is expected to take effect 30 days after it is deposited with the UN, the President’s team told reporters earlier.
In November 2020, the US became the first country in the world to withdraw from the treaty.
President Biden also signed an order to rescind the national emergency declaration that was used to justify some of Trump’s funding diversions to build the wall on the US-Mexico border.
The order will direct “an immediate pause” in construction to allow for a review of the funding and contracting methods used.
Building a “big” and “beautiful” wall between the US and Mexico to block undocumented immigrants from entering the country was one of Trump’s key 2016 election campaign promises.
