ABSTRACT
Biden believed that the federal government was the most effective entity to address major problems of national concern, such as the pandemic and its impact on the economy, the infrastructure, and voting rights. The new president’s faith in government was consistent with his party’s ideology and his personal experience of four decades of public service. The president planned to use the executive branch to promote his administration’s policy priorities. Regulatory protections were issued in the areas of climate control, economic and social discrimination, job pay, and aid to small businesses and farmers. The Department of Homeland Security handled most of the initial problems, but when its border guards were overwhelmed and detention facilities overcrowded and understaffed, the White House turned to other agencies to help. The fiscal years of 2021 and 2022 had the largest number of arrests and detentions of illegal immigrants on record.
