During his campaign for the 2020 Presidential election, President Joe Biden made countless promises. From restoring voting rights to ensuring criminal justice, his promises did not fall short of impressive. However, how many of them has he fulfilled?

Biden has followed through with some promises like reversing the transgender military ban and rescinding the “Muslim bans.” According to Politifact’s “Biden Promise Tracker,” the Biden administration has fulfilled 12 promises, only two of which regard minorities, his target audience during his campaign. With 1/4 of his term over, Biden’s list of unfulfilled promises is longer than many think it should be.

While voting rights appear to be the focus of many current political movements, Biden’s administration seems to be pushing it aside, if not ignoring it entirely. “Everyone should have the right to elect their own representative and get the representation that they need and they want,” freshman Corrine Howard said. Biden should not turn a blind eye to the very same minority groups he targeted during his campaign. 

Another issue getting an insufficient amount of attention from the Biden administration is the border control situation, which only seems to be escalating. A Human Rights First report tracked about 6,356 kidnappings, sexual assaults, and other violent attacks since Biden took office. Howard said, “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be welcoming women who, in their countries, can’t get proper education, their children are being abused by men, where men can come in and rape them and do whatever they want to them and they’re trying to escape that, and we’re not letting them in? That’s absurd.”

The harsh border control enforcement also serves as a barrier between foreign members of the LGBTQ+ community attempting to escape from their country’s homophobic ideals and their safety in the U.S. Senior Apurva Hari said, “Literally this entire country was built on equality and that’s like the entire promise of America is a place where you won’t be discriminated against and you have the freedom to live your life however the heck you want to live your life.”

It is not uncommon for politicians to make empty promises, but after a year like 2020, President Biden is expected, now more than ever, to live up to his words. “He’s kind of making promises to get himself in office, but he’s not really acting on those promises. He’s kind of going his own way, so if he can draw back to what he originally stated, I feel like we could get this back on track,” Howard said.