Biden issues massive immigration aid, seeking balance after border crackdown

The Biden administration will allow certain undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens to remain in the country and work legally, expanding a program that is currently used to provide documents to immediate family members of military personnel.

Tuesday morning’s announcement comes amid celebration of the 12-year anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which President Biden will celebrate at the White House later in the day with advocacy for immigrants and Latino leaders .

Biden’s move comes weeks after the administration adopted a crackdown on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border that angered the same groups the new measure aims to please.

Neither move came as a surprise: For months, immigration advocates had feared the border security initiative and eagerly awaited the relief measure.

“The announcement to be made today by the Biden administration is the most significant positive change in immigration policy in the last 12 years,” said Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.), one of the most vocal pro-immigrant advocates in the Congress. .

“One in ten children in Illinois has an undocumented parent. These mothers and fathers have built lives in our country and contributed to the economy, but they live in constant fear of deportation.”

The expansion of current parole, as the regularization program is known, will be accompanied by measures to facilitate the application for work visas for undocumented immigrants – especially DACA beneficiaries – who graduated from US colleges.

Beneficiaries will not receive new privileges – existing paths to regularize the immigration status of undocumented immigrants will be simplified under the new rules.

For spouses of U.S. citizens, undocumented graduates, and holders of so-called “injunctive” statuses such as DACA, the process to regularize their documents currently involves risky trips abroad that could result in permanent or long-term separations from their families and communities in the country. U.S.

“The purpose of this process is to facilitate the domestic status adjustment process to prevent people from having to travel abroad and be separated from their families if they would otherwise be eligible for adjustment,” said an official. from administration to journalists on Monday.

The current parole measure will allow undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens or who are adopted children of U.S. citizens to request a case-by-case evaluation of their parole request.

Without parole, applicants who decided to leave the country to apply for permanent residency abroad could be subject to mandatory waits of three or ten years, in addition to an already uncertain resolution.

To be eligible, potential parole candidates must have been in the United States for 10 years as of Monday.

Successful applicants will have three years to apply for permanent residency and in the meantime will receive a three-year work permit and deportation deportation.

The administration and advocates estimate that about half a million noncitizen spouses will be eligible, as will about 50,000 noncitizen children.

There are currently about 1 million undocumented immigrants who are part of mixed-status families in the United States, but about half of them have tougher cases that could make them ineligible to apply for permanent residency.

Immigration law imposes different bureaucratic barriers on foreign citizens, depending on factors such as the number of illegal entries, whether they have overstayed their visa and how long they have been in the country illegally.

Depending on individual cases, many of these people will not be eligible for the new program, as will other long-term undocumented immigrants who are not married to U.S. citizens.

“Providing relief and peace of mind to mixed-status families and the 45,000 DACA recipients in my state is a step in the right direction toward making our immigration system more fair and equitable. Still, many of my constituents will not benefit from today’s announcement and I will continue to push for work permits for our long-term immigrants who have waited for help for decades,” said García.

Biden’s action aimed at Dreamers will also benefit a subset of that population, ensuring undocumented graduates can be assured that they will receive the necessary exemption if they apply for a work visa.

Most foreign nationals can apply for work visas if they have a job offer in the United States and meet requirements such as a four-year college degree.

Undocumented applicants can also apply through this process, but they must obtain a waiver from the consular officials who review their visa applications – a risky prospect, as the consular review needs to take place while the applicant is abroad.

By eliminating some of these risks, the application process should become more palatable for eligible undocumented immigrants who would otherwise avoid leaving the United States for fear of not being able to return.

“The idea is simply to reflect that we recognize that there is an element of national interest to ensure that people who have been educated in the United States are able to put their education and skills to use for the benefit of our country,” one administration said. official told reporters.

The move is also galvanizing immigrant advocates who fear the new streamlined processes will be eliminated in a potential second Trump administration.

They are throwing their full support behind the measure, sending a message to both Biden and immigration restrictionists that they expect it to receive substantial political support.

While the asylum crackdown was generally well received, it was criticized by the right as too little too late – and improbably, as a form of amnesty – and by the left as a humanitarian and legal failure.

The pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. on Monday also criticized the new plan as an “amnesty.”

But the aid measure means that national Latino and immigrant leaders are sure to give Biden the kind of enthusiastic political praise that has so far eluded him.

“We should all say this from the heart, because this is not the fight that anti-immigrant groups want to fight. I think this is a really great policy and a great policy,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.usan immigration reform advocacy organization.

And immigrant advocacy groups are already sharpening their political knives, eager to show Biden that they will take the fight to the Republicans.

“The overwhelming majority of Americans agree that humane solutions for Dreamers and spouses of U.S. citizens are good for the economy and families. It would be absurd for Republicans to demonize something that benefited two of President Trump’s wives,” said Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story