NEW YORK – Within hours of being sworn in on Wednesday as the US President,Joe Biden plans to sign a number of executive orders, including rejoiningthe 2016 Paris climate accord and ending the travel ban on predominantlyMuslim countries, designed to signal an immediate break from PresidentDonald Trump.
“President-elect Biden will take action — not just to reverse the gravestdamages of the Trump administration — but also to start moving our countryforward,” incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain wrote in a memoreleased Saturday.
One of Trump’s first actions as president in 2017 was to suspend entry tothe United States of travelers from seven majority Muslim nations: Iran,Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, for 90 days. That executiveorder created chaos at airports around the world, and lawsuits against theban quickly followed.
After federal judges barred the first ban’s implementation, Trump issued asecond ban that was also quickly tied up in federal courts.
A third version of the ban was issued by the White House in the fall of2017, and this one applied to six majority Muslim countries and twonon-majority Muslim countries. The following year, the Supreme Court upheldthe constitutionality of the third ban, which remains in place today.
“We face four overlapping and compounding crises: the COVID-19 crisis, theresulting economic crisis, the climate crisis, and a racial equity crisis,”Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, wrote. “All of these crises demand urgentaction. In his first 10 days in office, President-elect Biden will takedecisive action to address these four crises, prevent other urgent andirreversible harms, and restore America’s place in the world.”
The other orders will include the launch of a “100 masking challenge” thatwill mandate masks on federal property and interstate travel, extend thepause on repayment of and interest on student loans, continue restrictionson evictions and foreclosures; all related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden will be inaugurated on January 20 amid unprecedented security withmore than 25,000 National Guard troops deployed in Washington DC in thewake of the storming of the US Capitol on January 6. FBI has warned of“armed protests” in days leading up to the inauguration.
President Trump announced US exit from the Paris Agreement in June 2017,saying it disadvantaged the country, blunted its competitive edge, andfavoured China.
The Paris Agreement is a legally binding global treaty that was signed inDecember 2015 and entered into force on November 2016. Signatory countriesfix its own mitigation targets, called Nationally Determined Contributions.The accord remains in force, unaffected by US exit.
The US return to the Paris Agreement was one of Biden’s key campaignpromises, as part of an aggressive climate agenda.
Meanwhile, a huge swath of the capital city of Washington is blocked off,patrolled by uniformed National Guard troops as part of a buildup neverseen. And the U.S. capital is getting even more fortified as federal, stateand local officials brace for a worst-case scenario of violence tied to theJan. 20 inauguration.
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Thousands of law enforcement, military and intelligence personnel have beenactivated to provide security in Washington leading up to President-electBiden’s swearing-in, a ceremony that will have far less pomp than in thepast because of the coronavirus pandemic and last week’s deadly riots atthe Capitol.
Behind the scenes, federal agents, prosecutors and analysts are racing totrack and disrupt active plots in what some say is the greatest securitychallenge since the days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks,according to current and former U.S. officials cited by news media.
“We’re concerned about the potential for violence at multiple protests andrallies planned here in D.C. and at state capitol buildings around thecountry in the days to come,” FBI Director Christoper Wray said in asecurity briefing on Thursday. “It could bring armed individuals withinclose proximity to government buildings and officials.”
A bulletin by the FBI and other agencies this week warned that extremiststargeting the inauguration may exploit the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitolbreach by conducting attacks to destabilize and force a larger conflict inthe U.S., according to media reports.More than 100 people involved in the riots — which led to at least fivedeaths — have been charged with crimes so far, with more expected.
Efforts to uncover active plots include searching social media, monitoringonline chat sites, arresting individuals identified in the Capitol riotsand interviewing suspects and witnesses, two U.S. officials s toldBloomberg News.
The Justice Department also has started making preemptive arrests: AnIllinois man was arrested on Jan. 12 for threatening to kill Democratsduring the inauguration. Capitol Police have warned that anyone trying to“unlawfully gain access” to the Capitol Complex will be subject to “anappropriate use of force and arrest.”
A presidential inauguration is always a highest-tier security affair, butagencies amplified and accelerated their operations following the Capitolsiege, which was led by Trump supporters trying to disrupt thecertification of Biden’s Electoral College victory by Congress.
The Secret Service is in charge of inauguration security and has activateda command center — officially known as the Multi-Agency Coordinating Center— to bring together federal, state and local agencies.
More than 20 public safety agencies are involved in the security planning,including law enforcement, fire and rescue and emergency medical services,according to the Secret Service
