WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday revoked a series of controversial executive orders issued under the Trump administration, striking down his predecessor’s decisions in areas ranging from monument protection to immigration restrictions.
Biden revoked a measure issued by President Donald Trump following the Black Lives Matter protests that instructed federal law enforcement authorities to prosecute individuals who vandalized federal monuments and to withhold funding from local governments that didn’t prevent the destruction of their statues. He also put a stop to another one of Trump’s monument initiatives, ending a plan to create a National Garden of American Heroes that the former president had said would serve as a statuary hall of fame.
Trump relied heavily on using executive orders to advance elements of his agenda for which he was unable to gain congressional support. The orders, which often faced legal challenges, also helped appease Trump supporters looking for action on culture war issues. Biden has been reversing many of those actions since his first day in office.
Biden also withdrew on Friday a Trump executive order intended to block the entry of immigrants into the U.S. who were deemed to be a “financial burden” on the health care system.
“My Administration is committed to expanding access to quality, affordable healthcare,” Biden said in a statement revoking the order. “We can achieve that objective, however, without barring the entry of noncitizens who seek to immigrate lawfully to this country but who lack significant financial means or have not purchased health insurance coverage from a restrictive list of qualifying plans.”
Another order revoked by Biden Friday was intended to be used by the Trump administration to change a law known as Section 230 that prevented tech companies from being held liable for content shared by users on their sites. The directive threatened to have wide-ranging consequences for the tech industry.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
