Biden administration restarts Task Force on New Americans

The Biden administration announced they will be reestablishing the Task Force on New Americans during the National Immigrant Inclusion Conference (NIIC) in December 2022. 

According to the White House, the task force will look at existing integration policies and programs and work to sharpen them and identify new key areas of need. Rachel Perić, Executive Director of Welcoming America, who has lobbied for the re-creation, said: “The Task Force builds on the many years of advocacy and leadership by all those working to advance the civic, social, and economic participation of new Americans and will be a vital mechanism for reviving and driving these efforts across the federal government in partnership with communities.

The Task Force seeks to work with a broad range of federal agencies on five lines of work: language learning and access, health and wellbeing, workforce development training, financial access and education, data and research. The Task Force’s objectives for the first six months are to 1) convene the various federal agencies with equity in immigration and review the efficacy of existing welcoming efforts, and 2) produce recommendations for expanding these efforts at the state and federal levels. 

A prior version of the task force during the Obama administration lapsed during the Trump administration.

MHC