WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered an expansive election-year measure to offer the possibility of naturalization to hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the United States without legal status, in an attempt to balance the aggressive border restrictions he recently announced and that outraged activists and many Democratic legislators.
Biden announced on Tuesday that In the coming months, his government will allow some spouses of US citizens without legal status to apply for permanent residence and, ultimately, naturalization.. The measure could affect nearly 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 amounts to the most expansive federal protection for immigrants in more than a decade.
Trump team response
The campaign team Trump accused Biden of creating “another invitation for illegal immigration.”
“Biden only cares about one thing: power, and that is why he is giving mass amnesty and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegals who he knows will ultimately vote for him and the Open Border Democratic Party,” the spokeswoman said. of the Trump campaign, Karoline Leavitt.
To qualify for the program, a person must have been in the United States for a minimum of 10 years as of Monday and be married to a U.S. citizen., both requirements met no later than Monday. If their application is approved, the person would have three years to apply for a permanent residence permit 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.
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?”
Biden’s announcement could “change the trajectory” of his family, Turay said.
Source: With information from AP
