President Joe Biden is set to announce a new policy aimed at protecting hundreds of thousands of undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation, according to administration officials.
This action will apply to individuals who have been in the country for at least 10 years and will grant them the ability to work legally in the U.S.
This policy represents the most significant relief program for undocumented migrants in the U.S. since the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012.
The White House estimates that more than 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens will benefit from this policy, along with 50,000 young people under 21 whose parents are married to American citizens.
Earlier in June, President Biden committed to making the U.S. immigration system “more fair and more just.”
Polls indicate that immigration is a key concern for many voters ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
The announcement coincides with an event on Tuesday celebrating the 12th anniversary of the DACA program, which has protected over 530,000 migrants who came to the U.S. as children—known as Dreamers—from deportation.
Senior administration officials have stated that undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens will qualify for the new policy if they have lived in the country for 10 years and been married as of June 17.
Qualifying individuals will have three years to apply for permanent residency and will be eligible for a three-year work permit.
The White House believes that those eligible have, on average, been in the U.S. for 23 years, with a majority born in Mexico.
These individuals will be “paroled in place,” allowing them to remain in the U.S. while their status is adjusted.
NumbersUSA, an immigration reform group, criticized the new policy as “unconscionable.”
James Massa, the organization’s chief executive, stated: “Rather than stopping the worst border crisis in history, President Biden has overreached his executive authority to use an unconstitutional process, circumventing voters and their elected representatives in Congress, to send a message that amnesty is available to those who enter illegally into the United States.”
Alex Cuic, an immigration lawyer and professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told the media that while the action affects a “narrow group,” it marks a “start” for a segment of the U.S. immigrant population that historically faces complications normalizing their status, even when eligible. “
A good majority of them [would have] to leave the country in order to come back lawfully,” he said.
By allowing beneficiaries to parole in place, officials “kill off the need to separate families” when one spouse needs to leave the country to apply for lawful permanent residence.
The application process is expected to open by the end of summer, a senior administration official noted.
The White House also plans to ease and expedite the visa process for highly skilled undocumented immigrants who have received degrees from U.S. universities or have job offers in their fields, including Dreamers.
This announcement comes two weeks after Biden issued a sweeping executive order allowing U.S. officials to quickly remove migrants entering the U.S. illegally without processing their asylum requests once a daily threshold is met and the border is “overwhelmed.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the Biden administration last week, arguing that this action violated U.S. immigration law.
At the time of the announcement, Biden urged those who consider the measure “too strict” to “be patient.”
He promised to discuss how to make the immigration system more fair and just in the coming weeks. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, commented that while the two announcements “don’t intersect with each other at all,” the more recent action might help the administration “get some positive headlines” after the criticism received over the border announcement.
He added, “The Biden administration has been receiving a lot of flak from people saying that their focus has all been on new arrivals, when there are so many long-term undocumented immigrants stuck trying to navigate our complicated immigration system.”
Source-BBC
