President Biden Announces Protections, Citizenship Pathway For Undocumented Spouses
DACA Protesters. Photo by Molly Adams from USA, CC BY 2.0
On the anniversary of DACA, President Biden announces changes and protections for undocumented spouses who have been in the United States for more than a decade.
The NY Times:
President Biden on Tuesday announced sweeping new protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have been living in the United States illegally for years but are married to American citizens.
Under the new policy, some 500,000 undocumented spouses will be shielded from deportation and given a pathway to citizenship and the ability to work legally in the United States. It is one of the most expansive presidential actions to protect immigrants in more than a decade.
Mr. Biden will celebrate the program during a White House ceremony on Tuesday marking the 12-year anniversary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which protects people who came to the United States as children from deportation.
The decision comes as Mr. Biden tries to strike a balance on one of the most dominant political issues in 2024. Aware that many Americans want tougher policies on the border, Mr. Biden just two weeks ago announced a crackdown that suspended longtime guarantees that give anyone who steps onto U.S. soil the right to seek asylum here.
Mr. Biden is also expected on Tuesday to detail separate actions that will make it easier for undocumented young people, many of them known as Dreamers, to access work visas.
Almost immediately after he issued that order, White House officials began privately reassuring progressives that the president would also help undocumented immigrants who had been in the nation for years, according to people familiar with the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions.
Tuesday’s move could help Mr. Biden address some of the blowback that his asylum restrictions elicited among members of his progressive base, who have accused the White House of betraying campaign promises to enact a more humane approach to immigrants.
The new benefits for undocumented spouses will not take effect immediately; senior Biden administration officials said they expected the program to launch by the end of the summer. Those eligible will then be able to apply for the benefits.
Resident immigration lawyer here. Let me break this down into the practicalities. In order to receive a green card in the United States, you generally need to have been admitted and paroled into the United States. This basically means that the United States government needs to where and when you entered into the United States but is somewhat more complicated.
Many immigrants can not get their green cards or lawful permanent residency in the United States because they entered without inspection. There is a program called Parole in Place. This allows USCIS to, on their own discretion, parole immigrants even if they were EWI. It is currently only available to the spouses and parents of USCs who are active or honorably discharged members of the armed forces or national guard.
What President Biden seems to plan doing is enlarging the parole in place program so that EWI immigrants married to USCs may apply for it even if the USCs are not or were never in the armed forces.Report
The problem that many DACA immigrants have is similar but also a bit more complicated. Besides the fact that many of them are EWI or entered without inspection, meaning they need to consular process, they also have a lot of unlawful presence in the United States. This will trigger various bars if they leave the United States for consular processing. To get around these bars they will need a variety of waivers and many might not have a qualifying relative for these waivers.Report
Thanks for sharing that perspective Lee, very interesting.Report
This is the sort of common sense immigration reform that SHOULD be easy to get bipartisan congressional support for. Unfortunately we can’t get that, so the President is doing a thing that acknowledges the contributions these people are making to the country and providing them a path that guarantees their status. Even inn non-election years this would be a good idea.Report
Biden and the Democrats… pro-family and pro-marriage!Report
Here is the official White House release:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/06/18/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-new-actions-to-keep-families-together/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2AW0aNR91a2VoIZH59Z9dHzY368fji51frEwypGHeoCh6SHMBCqI4b8Nk_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw
It is very limited but I suspect that this is in part to survive a challenge in the Courts from the Right.Report