President Joe Biden is taking executive action to protect undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens — a move that would protect nearly 500,000 immigrants from deportation.
The White House announced politics in an election year Tuesday, framing it as “new action to keep families together.” NBC News reported last week such action to protect spouses would likely be announced soon, following an appeal from immigration advocates and Democratic lawmakers and as the president courts Latino voters in crucial battleground states.
The new policy would allow non-citizens who have been in the country for at least 10 years and are married to a US citizen, and their children, to apply for permanent residency without leaving the country.
During a White House ceremony, Biden called the measures a “common sense solution” to a system that is “burdensome, risky and separates families.”
He said the order would take effect this summer and emphasized that it would not benefit people who recently arrived in the country. Instead, it would help people who “pay taxes and contribute to our country” and their families.
“This is the biggest thing since DACA,” said one source familiar with the matter, an immigration advocate.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, announced by then-President Barack Obama in 2012, allowed immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children to remain in the country.
Foreshadowing the likely battles to come over this policy, the White House was keen to underline that it has been tough on illegal border crossings and has been working to dismantle human smuggling networks.
The president “believes that securing the border is essential,” the country said in a press release issued Tuesday describing the new action.
“He also believes in expanding legal pathways and supporting families, and that immigrants who have been in the United States for decades, paying taxes and contributing to their communities, are part of the social fabric of our country,” the statement said.
The statement adds that spouses eligible to apply have been in the U.S. for 23 years, on average.
The program would also make it easier for some undocumented immigrants to obtain a green card and a path to U.S. citizenship.
Sources also state that undocumented spouses would be allowed to obtain work permits on a case-by-case basis.
The action includes plans to allow DACA recipients who have earned higher education degrees and are seeking employment in the same field to receive work visas more quickly.
Republicans, including former president Donald Trumpexecutive action exploded.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, Trump said that if elected in November, Biden’s new immigration policy would be immediately “ripped up and rejected.”
“It has been a non-stop catastrophe, but one of corrupt Joe’s most destructive actions is the lawless executive action he took today,” Trump said. “Under this program, a flood of illegals will receive immediate green cards and be put on the fast track to fast citizenship so they can vote.”
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who has made immigration and border issues a cornerstone of his campaign, said “millions” of immigrants would benefit from the program, a number that contrasts with a White House estimate that it would impact about 500 thousand people who are spouses and 50,000 non-citizen children under age 21 with non-citizen parents who married an American before age 18 and who may also qualify.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, also ripped the administration’s announcement, painting it as “granting amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens” and saying it would “encourage more illegal immigration and put Americans in danger.”
The new program must be challenged in court.
Noting the likelihood of lawsuits, Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that passing legislation would be “the only action that will fully allow these individuals Deserving people put down roots, start families, further their education and continue to contribute to our society without fear of deportation.” But he also acknowledged that a bill would be unlikely to pass Congress, given Republican opposition to previous immigration overhauls.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
