Half a million migrants could naturalize Americans according to Biden’s new plan

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered an expansive election-year measure to offer the chance of naturalization to hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the United States without legal status, in an attempt to balance aggressive border restrictions. that he recently announced and that outraged activists and many Democratic legislators.

Biden announced that his government will allow in the coming months some spouses of US citizens without legal status to apply for permanent residence and, ultimately, naturalization. The measure could involve almost half a million immigrants, according to government officials.

“The Statue of Liberty is not a relic of American history. “It continues to represent who we are,” Biden said from a packed East Room of the White House, full of activists, Democratic congressmen and immigrants who could benefit from the program. “But I also refuse to believe that in order for us to remain an America that embraces immigration, we have to give up protecting our border.”

The announced measure, which represents the broadest federal protection for immigrants in more than a decade, establishes an important political contrast with the virtual presidential candidate of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, whose immigration stance includes proposals for mass deportations and rhetoric that criticizes to immigrants from dangerous criminals who “poison the blood” of the United States.

On Tuesday, Biden accused his predecessor of exploiting fears about immigrants and criticized the Trump administration’s actions, such as the zero-tolerance policy at the southern border, that led to the separation of families.

During a campaign rally in Racine, Wisconsin, Trump declared Tuesday that “when he is re-elected, Joe Biden’s illegal amnesty plan will be torn up and scrapped the very first day he returns to the presidency.”

With the shadow of a second Trump term hanging over Biden’s new initiative, Tuesday’s actions will be the start of a months-long race by Hispanic organizations to get as many people as possible to sign up for the program before next January.

To qualify for the program, a person must have been in the United States for a minimum of 10 years and be married to a U.S. citizen, both requirements met by Monday. If her application is approved, the person would have three years to apply for permanent residence and would receive a temporary work permit, in addition to being protected from deportation during the process.

Some 50,000 noncitizen children with a parent married to a U.S. citizen could also follow the same process, according to senior officials who briefed reporters on the proposal on condition of anonymity. There is no requirement for how long the couple must be married, but no one will be eligible after Monday. That means immigrants who reach that 10-year mark in the country any time after June 17, 2024 will no longer be able to participate in the program, according to officials.

Senior government officials believe the application process will begin at the end of the summer, and said applicable fees were still to be determined.

Biden announced the new program on Tuesday at a White House event organized to celebrate 12 years of the popular Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program from the era of former President Barack Obama, which offered protections against deportation for some young immigrants who lacked legal status.

The announcement was good news for families with mixed immigration status, like Antonio and Brenda Valle, of Los Angeles. They have been married for almost 12 years and have two children who are US citizens, but every two years they are overwhelmed by worry that Brenda will not have her status as a DACA recipient renewed.

“We can start making long-term plans, for the future, instead of thinking about what we can do for the next two years,” he stressed.

Foday Turay was one of those invited to the White House on Tuesday for the announcement. He came to the United States when he was 10 years old, from Sierra Leone, and is now the father of a child and married to a third-generation American citizen. Although he is enrolled in DACA and works as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, his status does not provide him relief from the constant worry of deportation.

“My wife is tremendously shocked by this,” Turay said Tuesday before the ceremony. “Every day she talks to me about what is going to happen. What happens if I am deported? How are we going to raise our son? “What country are we going to raise him in?”

Republicans drew their own contrasts with Biden’s plan. In a possible preview of a Republican campaign ad, Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the House Republican campaign team, referred to Biden’s move as a “mass amnesty plan.” Other Republicans, such as Texas Governor Greg Abbott, stated that the directive will be overturned by the courts.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who is listed as a possible Trump running mate, strongly defended a measure in 2012 that would have offered legal status to young immigrants, but on Tuesday he noted that “the world is different” right now because of the increase in immigration.

Tuesday’s announcement came two weeks after Biden unveiled a measure for the U.S. southern border that virtually suspended asylum claims for those arriving between official ports of entry. Immigrant advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit against the federal government over that guidance, which a top administration official said Monday has led to fewer border encounters between points of entry.

Biden’s allies believe that the position he is taking with the two actions on immigration this month will have a great impact on voters.

“The only party that takes border security seriously are the Democrats. The only party that is being thoughtful and compassionate about what we do with people living in the shadows are Democrats,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who helped draft the bipartisan border initiative earlier this year. “The Republican Party has decided to set aside border security.”

Among the activists, Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA, assured that Biden’s announcement would stimulate Hispanic communities to support the president.

“This is what our communities needed to support President Biden for reelection,” he said.

Biden also unveiled new regulations that will allow certain DACA recipients and other young immigrants easier access to work visas. That would allow eligible immigrants stronger protections than those offered by DACA work permits, which are currently facing legal challenges and are not receiving new applications.

The power Biden invoked for Tuesday’s announcement is nothing new. The measure would expand the authority that Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama used to grant “temporary stay permits” to family members of members of the armed forces, said Andrea Flores, a former political adviser in the Obama and Biden administrations and current vice president of FWD.us, an immigration advocacy organization.

The temporary parole process gives migrants a path to permanent residency in the United States without leaving the country, removing a common obstacle for those who do not have legal status but are married to an American. Flores called the measure “the biggest triumph for the immigrant rights movement since the announcement of DACA 12 years ago.”

The same progressives who were infuriated by Biden’s asylum order praised the president on Tuesday. Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington and chair of the progressive caucus in Congress, congratulated Biden, noting that these actions will help keep American families together.

“Many Americans would be surprised to hear that when a U.S. citizen marries an undocumented person, their spouse is not automatically eligible for U.S. citizenship,” he commented. “Imagine loving someone, marrying that person, and then still being afraid that you will be separated.”