Washington: US President Joe Biden on Wednesday lifted a freeze on green cards issued by his predecessor during Covid-19 pandemic that lawyers said was blocking most legal immigration to the United States.

On December 31 Trump, extended those orders until the end of March. Trump had deemed immigrants a risk to the US labor market and blocked their entry to the United States in issuing Proclamation 10014 and Proclamation 10052.

As many as 120,000 family-based preference visas were lost largely because of the pandemic-related freeze in the 2020 budget year, according to the American Immigrant Lawyers Association. Immigrants could not bring over family members unless they were US citizens applying for visas for their spouses or children under the age of 21.