BIDEN ANNOUNCES ACTION TO PROTECT MANY IMMIGRANT SPOUSES OF CITIZENS FROM DEPORTATION, ALONG WITH THEIR CHILDREN

Plan also makes it easier for DACA recipients and immigrant college graduates to obtain work visas

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Immigrant rights march, via Wikimedia

June 18,2024 (Washington D.C.) – President Joe Biden today announced executive actions to protect a half million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation, if they have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years. An estimated 50,000 children under 21 with a U.S. citizen parent will also be protected from deportation. 

Until now, undocumented spouses and children of citizens had to leave the U.S. to apply for permanent residency, a process that often separated families for years. A similar parole in place program is already used to protect undocumented families of military members.

The new, broader parole-in-place program will allow parents and children to stay in the U.S. for three years while they apply for permanent residency.  All applicants will be vetted by the Department of Homeland Security to assure the applicant does not pose a threat to public safety or national security.

Reuters reports that the majority of those set to benefit from the order are Mexicans, many of them in California.

In addition, Biden announced a program to make it easier for Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and undocumented college graduates to obtain work visas/green cards if they have been offered a job related to their degree.

The actions have drawn both praise and criticism.

California Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat who chairs  the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Safety, says the Presidents plans will “improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of American families who will no longer have to live with fear and uncertainty of being torn apart or risk being separated for extended periods as they navigate the complex bureaucracy of our broken immigration system,” adding that actions to help DACA recipients/Dreamers to be sponsored for work visas will enable them ”the opoprtunity to continue contributing their talents to our communities and our workforce.”

Padilla concludes, “These actions aren’t only the morally right thing to do, they are in America’s best interest. The individuals and families who will benefit from these protections contribute immensely to our economy and our country.

But Donald Trump’s presidential campaign claims, “Biden’s mass amnesty plan will undoubtedly lead to a greater surge in migrant crime, cost taxpayers millions of dollars they cannot afford, overwhelm public services, and steal Social Security and Medicare benefits from American seniors.”

Fact check:  Immigrant workers with work visas would pay into he Social Security system. As for crime,  Forbes reports, a Texas Dept. of Public Safety report found that U.S.-born citizens are more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, and 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes than undocumented immigrants.

The actions to protect undocumented families of citizens and DACA recipients comes after President Biden issued a separate order to shut down the border and deport most asylum seekers crossing illegally whenever there are high numbers of undocumented border crossers, though there are exceptions for unaccompanied minors and those with severe medical needs. San Diego’s border has exceeded the threshold for months, triggering a shutdown for processing migrants who enter the U.S. between official border crossing points.

That action is being challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union, which likened it to a Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy found unlawful. The border shutdown also drew criticism from immigrant rights and Latino groups, some of which have praised the actions to protect families of citizens and DACA recipients. 

Conservative groups, meanwhile, are expected to file legal challenges seeking to block Biden’s most recent executive orders.

Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledges that more is needed to fix our “broken immigration system” such as providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. But bipartisan immigration reform measure, even a recent bill that would have strengthened border security as well as enacting immigration reforms, have failed to pass due to the partisan divide in Congress.

“President Biden and I continue to call on the United States Congress to join us in acting by passing permanent protection for Dreamers,” the Vice President concludes.