Biden to delay implementation of executive orders on immigration

By Julia Ainsley, Jacob Soboroff and Geoff Bennett - NBC News

WASHINGTON - The White House is likely to delay implementation of a series of immigration-related executive orders, including the long-awaited announcement of a task force to

reunite separated migrant families

under the Donald Trump Administration, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to create a task force "on his first day as president."

In a memorandum outlining the first executive actions, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain assured that the Biden Administration would "begin the difficult but critical task of reuniting separated families at the border."

Another planning document circulated to Biden officials indicated that executive action on immigration would be released on Friday.

[A federal judge temporarily blocks Biden's order halting deportations for 100 days]

Sources involved in the discussions say they have been delayed

"at least a few days"

but did not explain the cause of the delay.

When the task force is announced, it is expected to be an interagency effort between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Health, and the Department of State, led by Biden's chosen DHS secretary

Alejandro Mayorkas.

According to three sources familiar with planning.

A Border Patrol agent checks the passports of a mother and daughter from Ecuador by the border fence after detaining them on September 10, 2019 in Penitas, Texas.

John Moore / Getty Images

Its objective will be to

reunite all migrant families separated at the border

throughout the four years of Trump's presidency, not by deportations carried out from within the country, according to these sources.

The working group will also prepare a report on what led to the separations and

recommend that this policy never be repeated

, although it will not carry out an investigation that could lead to the release of responsible officials from criminal charges, the sources added.

Instead, any investigation that requires the subpoena of witnesses will be left to the discretion of the Justice Department, these sources said.

But other key details are still being worked out, such as

what factors may disqualify families from being reunited

and whether those who do qualify but have been deported will receive special protections, such as humanitarian aid, to come to the United States.

[Justice Department overturns Trump's zero tolerance policy that caused 3,000 migrant families to separate]

All families separated at the border during the four years of the Trump Administration, not just those separated during the "zero tolerance" policy,

will be eligible for reunification by the task force,

according to three sources familiar with the planning discussions.

Almost 3,000 migrant children were separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border under the "zero tolerance" policy, which systematically separated children from their parents whose only crime was crossing the border illegally during May and June 2018.

But before that,

more than 1,000 families were separated

in a pilot program in and around El Paso, Texas.

And after June 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimates that

another 1,000 families have been separated

at the United States border.

There are 666 migrant children still separated from their families: more than what was known to date

Nov. 10, 202000: 28

But

many of those parents have been deported

, making them more difficult to find and, if found, presents them with the difficult choice of whether to take their children to a dangerous country or allow them to live in the United States with relatives.

The task force's announcement is not expected to include details on whether families will receive special permission to come to the United States to reunite with their children.

Pro-bono groups that have so far worked to reunify separated families under the 2017 pilot program, and the 2018 zero tolerance program, say they

have been unable to reach the parents of more than 600 children

and believe that two-thirds of them have been deported.