WASHINGTON – United States President Joe Biden has introduced one of the most extensive immigration regularization programs in recent memory.
The initiative provides a route to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of immigrants currently without legal status in the country.
The new measures, announced on Tuesday, will enable certain undocumented spouses of US citizens to apply for permanent residency — and eventually citizenship — without needing to depart the country.
This move will affect over 500,000 spouses of US citizens.
Besides it, approximately 50,000 non-citizen children under 21, whose parents are married to US citizens, will also qualify.
In a speech from the White House, Biden portrayed this executive action as a practical solution to the burdensome existing system. He highlighted the current requirement for undocumented spouses of citizens to return to their home countries, such as Mexico, to complete paperwork for long-term legal status.
“They have to leave their families in America without any assurance of being allowed back into the United States. So, they remain in America, but in the shadows, living in constant fear of deportation without the ability to work legally,” Biden explained.
Furthermore, Biden emphasized that these new measures aim to address the issue without making fundamental changes to existing immigration laws.
This announcement comes as immigration remains a contentious issue in the lead-up to the November presidential elections.
Despite these steps, critics, particularly within the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, have expressed concerns that Biden’s immigration policies may closely mirror those of Trump.
Earlier this month, Biden signed an executive order tightening restrictions on seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border, responding to last year’s surge in unauthorized crossings.
Human rights advocates criticized this move, accusing Biden of yielding to pressure from Republican lawmakers who blame him for the situation at the southern border. The managing attorney for the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project’s Border Action Team warned that such asylum restrictions could lead to increasingly perilous circumstances for affected individuals.
Addressing these criticisms in his speech, Biden attributed the asylum measures to congressional deadlock, asserting that he took action where Republicans in Congress had refused to act.
He mentioned that Republican reluctance to advance bipartisan immigration reforms earlier this year was motivated by fears of harming Trump’s re-election prospects.
Biden drew a sharp distinction between his approach and that of Trump, whom he accused of proposing harsh immigration measures that would separate families and confine them to detention camps.
He reiterated America’s identity as a nation of immigrants, emphasizing a more humane approach to immigration policy.
