By Ted Hesson and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden announced Tuesday a sweeping effort to provide a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. who are illegally married to U.S. citizens, a move this election year that stands in stark contrast to its Republican rival Donald Trump‘s plan for mass deportations.
At a White House event, Biden criticized Trump for separating migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border and using inflammatory language about immigrants in the U.S., including comments that they were “poisoning the blood of our country.”
“It’s hard to believe it’s being said, but he’s actually saying these things out loud. And it’s outrageous,” Biden said. “I’m not interested in playing politics with the border or immigration. I’m interested in solving it.”
The new Biden program will be open to an estimated 500,000 spouses who have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years starting June 17, officials said Tuesday. About 50,000 children under age 21 with a parent who is a U.S. citizen are also eligible.
Biden, a Democrat seeking a second term in the Nov. 5 presidential election, took office promising to reverse many of Trump’s restrictive immigration policies. But given the record number of migrant arrests at the US-Mexico border, Biden has tightened his approach.
Earlier this month, the president banned most migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border from seeking asylum, a policy that mirrored a similar Trump-era asylum ban and drew criticism from immigration advocates and some Democrats.
Biden’s planned legalization program for spouses of U.S. citizens could reinforce his campaign message that he supports a more humane immigration system and show how he differs from Trump, who has long taken a tough stance on both legal and illegal immigration.
“The Statue of Liberty is not a relic of American history,” Biden said. “It still represents who we are.”
The program is likely to face legal challenges and a future administration could try to end it. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican whose state has challenged Biden in court over immigration policy, said in a statement that the new effort was “blatantly illegal” and “self-indulgent.”
The US already offers a path to citizenship for immigrants who are married to Americans and entered the country legally on a visa. But in most cases, those who enter illegally must leave the U.S. for years before they can legally return.
The new program will allow spouses and their children to apply for permanent residency without having to travel abroad, eliminating a potentially lengthy process and separation of families.
The road to permanent residency can take months or years. From there they could apply for citizenship. People with a disqualifying criminal history are not eligible.
The implementation will be rolled out in the coming months and the majority of likely beneficiaries would be Mexicans, Biden officials said on a call with reporters.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday that the decision to regularize the migration status of Mexican families in the United States is “very good news,” honoring Biden’s announcement during a news conference.
Biden’s comments at the White House were in connection with the anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Former President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Biden launched the DACA program in 2012, another major legalization effort that currently provides deportation relief and work permits to 528,000 people brought to the U.S. as children.
The Biden administration also announced guidelines to make it easier for DACA recipients to obtain skilled work visas.
MIXED POLLS
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called Biden’s new program an “amnesty” that would create “a new invitation for illegal immigration.” Trump has highlighted the crimes committed by immigrants and has repeatedly promised to deport millions of people if elected.
Just over half of U.S. voters support illegally deporting all or most immigrants in the U.S., Reuters/Ipsos polling shows.
At the same time, separate polls from the advocacy group Immigration Hub found that 71% of voters in seven electoral battleground states supported spouses being allowed to stay in the U.S. illegally for more than five years.
Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, said her organization’s focus groups with independent and Republican voters found they supported legal status for spouses.
“It increases turnout in terms of Latino and grassroots voters, but it also has support from the center and right,” she said on a call with reporters Monday, adding that most people thought the spouses could already legalize.
LIVING IN FEAR
One couple who could potentially benefit from the campaign were eagerly awaiting more details.
Megan, a social worker from the electoral battleground state of Wisconsin, met her husband Juan 20 years ago when she worked at a restaurant with his relatives during her summer vacation.
Juan’s family, from the Mexican state of Michoacan, had come to the U.S. as seasonal workers for generations, while his grandfather participated in a U.S. farm worker program. Juan was in the country illegally, but she never thought this would be a problem.
“I assumed maybe you pay a fine or something,” she said. “The punishment is simply completely disproportionate.”
They now have two daughters – aged four and seven – and still haven’t found a way to resolve Juan’s status. Reuters is withholding their last name because Megan is afraid they will face backlash.
Wisconsin does not issue illegal driver’s licenses to immigrants in the US, and the couple worries that Juan, who works as a landscaper, could one day be apprehended and deported.
She said the family would likely uproot and move to Mexico if Juan were ever sent back.
“It’s just a low stress level that’s always there,” she said.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Mica Rosenberg, Daniel Wallis and Aurora Ellis)
