(CTN News) – According to government insiders, President Joe Biden has revealed a new policy that will safeguard hundreds of thousands of undocumented spouses of US citizens from deportation.
Immigration has been an election-year worry for Mr. Biden, who recently issued a broad executive order to reduce record migrant arrivals at the US-Mexico border.
The new regulation will apply to those who have lived in the country for at least ten years and will allow them to lawfully work in the United States.
The White House expects that over 500,000 spouses will be eligible.
Speaking at a White House event on Tuesday, Mr. Biden stated that the change will help the US immigration system become less “unfair” and “unjust” for immigrants, married couples, and all Americans alike.
Polls reveal that immigration is a major concern for many Americans before the November presidential election.
The White House also expects that the new spouse’s policy will benefit 50,000 young people under 21 whose parents are married to American citizens.
It is the most major relief programme for undocumented migrants in the United States since the Obama Administration introduced Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in 2012.
“The action I’m announcing today will go into effect later this summer,” Biden stated at the White House.
Despite what the Republicans say, the American people overwhelmingly support my actions today, he continued.
The White House decision came as the United States commemorated the 12th anniversary of Daca, which protected over 530,000 migrants who arrived to the country as youngsters, known as Dreamers, from deportation.
On Monday, senior administration officials stated that undocumented spouses of US citizens would be eligible if they had been in the nation for ten years and were married as of June 17.
Those who qualify will have three years to apply for permanent residency and will be eligible for a three-year work visa.
The White House believes that people eligible for the procedure have spent an average of 23 years in the United States. The bulk will have been born in Mexico.
They will be “paroled in place” and permitted to remain in the United States until their status changes.
Numbers USA, a group that lobbies for stricter immigration limits, condemned the new policy as “unconscionable.”.
The organization’s chief executive, James Massa, said, “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 BBC that, while the action affected a “narrow group,” it was a “start” for a segment of the US immigrant population that had previously faced difficulties normalizing their status in the country, even when eligible.
“A good majority of them [would have] to leave the country in order to come back lawfully,” he stated. “It’s like they physically enter the US, but their immigration ‘soul’ doesn’t come with them.”
Mr Cuic stated that by allowing beneficiaries to parole in place, officials “kill off the need to separate families” when one spouse wants to leave the country to seek for lawful permanent residence.
A senior administration official stated on Monday that the application process will most likely be open before the end of the summer.
The White House also intends to streamline and expedite the immigration process for highly educated undocumented immigrants, including Dreamers, who have earned degrees from US colleges or have secured employment offers in their area.
Mr. Biden’s declaration comes two weeks after he announced a sweeping executive action that empowers US officials to promptly remove people entering the country illegally without reviewing their asylum applications.
The White House stated that this would happen whenever a daily threshold is met and the border is “overwhelmed.”.
The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration last week, alleging that its actions violated US immigration law.
Mr. Biden urged individuals who believe the policy is “too strict” to “be patient” at the time of the announcement.
“In the weeks ahead, I will speak about how we can make our immigration system more fair and just,” he stated.
According to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, the two statements “do not intersect at all,” but the more recent action may assist the administration in “getting some positive headlines after the pushback” they received over the border announcement.
“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,” he stated.
“I think the actions you’ve seen the president take over the last few weeks really go towards addressing both of those concerns,” said Reichlin-Melnick.