The new executive action taken by the Biden administration on June 17 allows certain undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to apply for lawful permanent residency without having to leave the nation; this could provide hundreds of thousands of people with protection from deportation.
According to a senior administration official, the action will grant legal status and protections to approximately 500 000 American families and roughly 50 000 noncitizen children of immigrants under 21 whose parent is married to a US citizen. It is essentially one of the largest immigration relief initiatives by the federal government since the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was introduced by then-President Barack Obama in 2012.
The action is a gesture of goodwill toward progressives and immigration advocates, many of whom have harshly criticized Biden for earlier restrictive measures, such as this month’s steps to restrict asylum processing at the US southern border.
What has Biden Changed About Immigration?
Undocumented spouses of US citizens who have been residing in the nation may apply for lawful permanent residence while still there under the comprehensive new immigration plan. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will evaluate each request individually and may not be able to grant all of them.
According to a DHS fact sheet, the spouses must be lawfully wed, be residents of the US for at least ten years as of June 17, 2024, and “not pose a threat to public safety or national security” in order to qualify.
Applications for permanent residence may take months or even years to process. Those who are given permanent residency in the US—also known as a “green card”—are eligible to apply for US citizenship.
Spouses who were living in the US without proper documentation had to return home and apply for citizenship at a consulate prior to the implementation of this plan, which could take three to ten years.
“They [undocumented spouses of US citizens] are forced to leave their families behind in the US with no guarantee that they will be welcomed back.” In a White House speech, Biden explained why the outdated system needed to be fixed. “So they stay in America, but in the shadows, living in constant fear of deportation without the ability to legally work,” he said.
Immigration advocacy organizations and experts are welcomed the latest development
Todd Schulte, president of immigration advocacy group FWD.us, said of Biden in a statement: “By removing barriers that prevent spouses from staying with their families, he can fulfill his promise to protect those harmed by our broken immigration laws.” “We urge the president to take decisive action, knowing full well that Americans of all political persuasions are in favor of these justifiable safeguards for those who have long since established their residency in our neighborhoods and made significant contributions to our nation.”
According to the Migration Policy Institute, the change in status may affect up to 550 000 people, and enabling those people to pursue higher-paying employment may have a significant positive economic impact.
Other Measures to Ease the Migratory Push
The executive order was issued two weeks after Biden placed limitations on the ability to apply for asylum at the US-Mexico border, where there was an increase in unauthorized crossings of the previous year. Biden’s restrictions on asylum have drawn criticism from some who claimed that they were similar to those of former President Donald Trump, who has advocated for strict immigration laws. Regarding the border asylum restrictions on June 4, Biden has been sued by immigrant rights groups.
The president has been considering taking further executive action ever since a bipartisan border bill failed earlier this year. A greater effort by Mexico has contributed to the months-long decline in the number of unauthorized border crossings between the United States and Mexico.
The proposed restrictions are an aggressive attempt to alleviate the strain on the nation’s overburdened asylum system. They are part of a larger initiative to expedite the processing of cases for migrants who are already in the country, as well as another to expedite the processing of cases for migrants with criminal records or those who would otherwise be determined to be ineligible for asylum in the United States. With this action, Biden would be able to claim that, without assistance from Congress, he has exhausted all options for reducing border numbers. His administration has recently implemented more modest measures to deter immigration and expedite the asylum process.
Democratic Party sources informed the AP that the administration was considering a few measures that came directly from a bipartisan Senate border agreement that has stalled. These included limiting the number of encounters to 4 000 on average per day over the course of a week and determining whether or not asylum-seekers who made appointments through the CBP One app would be included in that cap.
There are currently about 1 450 of these appointments every day. One possibility is that immigrants who enter after a border crossing point might be automatically removed in a manner akin to deportation and would find it difficult to return. Title 42 was a pandemic-era policy that made it easier for displaced migrants to return to the border. As part of that agreement, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvadorian migrants were among the non-Mexican nationalities that Mexico promised to repatriate.
Families in particular who come to the southern border to seek asylum are typically allowed to stay in the country while their cases are pending. However, there are over 2 million unresolved immigration court cases, and some individuals are left in the United States for years without a court date.
Biden’s Stick and Carrots Politics
Nevertheless, Republicans are keen to criticize Biden on immigration as they approach the November presidential election in the United States.
Following the end of pandemic-related asylum restrictions on May 11, the Biden administration persisted in using a carrot-and-stick strategy at the border, introducing a blanket ban on asylum for individuals who enter the country illegally through other nations, such as Mexico.
Polls indicate that the majority of people disapprove of President Biden’s handling of the surge, and former president Donald Trump—who has also come under fire for his immigration policies—is campaigning on a platform of tougher enforcement and mass deportation.
