By Ted Hesson and Mica Rosenberg
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden could soon announce a new push to let immigrants in the U.S. illegally obtain legal status if they are married to U.S. citizens, three sources said, a move this election year that has energized some liberal voters could give.
Biden is expected to unveil the effort at a White House event on Tuesday, two of the sources said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal plans that are still subject to change.
Biden, a Democrat, is seeking a second term in the Nov. 5 election, in which he will face Republican challenger Donald Trump, an immigration hardliner.
Biden has faced record numbers of migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border under his watch and recently implemented a restrictive new asylum ban at the border to deter crossers.
Some fellow Democrats and immigrant advocates opposed the asylum ban and have called on Biden to protect long-term U.S. residents who lack legal status, including spouses.
Reuters reported in April that the White House was considering ways for the spouses to obtain legal status.
White House spokesman Angelo Fernandez Hernandez did not confirm any upcoming immigration relief, but said in a statement that Biden officials “remain committed to taking action to address our broken immigration system.”
Biden said in his remarks on the asylum ban on June 4 that he would “talk about how we can make our immigration system more fair and equitable” in the coming weeks.
Tuesday’s White House event will be tied to the anniversary of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The DACA program was launched by former President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Biden and currently provides deportation assistance and work permits to 528,000 people brought to the U.S. as children.
The U.S. State Department could also roll out new guidelines saying DACA recipients should be considered eligible for nonimmigrant visas when they leave the U.S., one of the sources said.
Representative Nanette Barragan, a Democrat and head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said she would attend the event at the White House and urged Biden to take action to protect the spouses of U.S. citizens and DACA recipients.
Barragan said in an interview that Biden could contrast himself with Trump, who has vowed to launch the largest deportation effort in U.S. history.
“I think this could be very important for the lives of these people who are living in the shadows, who are married to American citizens and who are in danger of being deported,” she said.
An estimated 1.1 million immigrants in the U.S. are illegally married to U.S. citizens, according to data from advocacy group FWD.us, but how many of them would be included in a possible Biden move remained unclear.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Mica Rosenberg in New York; Editing by Mary Milliken and Leslie Adler)
