Biden revokes Trump immigration policies; reunites migrant familiese

US President Joe Biden has signed three executive orders to address concerns over the Trump administration's immigration policies, including one to reunite migrant families separated at the southern border under the previous administration's zero-tolerance policy.

"With the first action today, we're going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families, mothers, and fathers at the border with no plan, none whatsoever, to reunify the children, who are still in custody, and their parents," Biden said in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

Biden said the second executive order he signed will address the root causes of migration to the US southern border. The third executive order directs a full review of the Trump administration's immigration policies, Biden said.

In 2018, former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the United States had adopted a "zero-tolerance policy" for immigration offenses that required prosecution of all illegal entry referrals at the southwest border including misdemeanors and regardless if the migrant adult was with a family unit.

Last week, US acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson formally terminated the Trump administration's so-called zero-tolerance immigration policy. More than 1,000 migrant families were separated in 2017 under the so-called zero-tolerance policy.

In October, US media reported, citing the American Civil Liberties Union, that the Trump administration is unable to find the parents of nearly 600 migrant children in US custody.

Biden on his first day in office on January 20 took executive action to halt the ongoing construction of the border wall and to suspend the Migrant Protection Protocols program, also known as the Remain in Mexico policy, while his team reviews the Trump-era policies.