HOUSTON (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of immigrants had reason to rejoice when President Joe Biden unveiled a sweeping plan to extend legal status to spouses of U.S. citizens, but some were inevitably left out.
Claudia Zúniga, 35, got married in 2017, ten years after her husband came to the United States. He moved to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico after their marriage, knowing that by law he had to live outside the country for years to obtain legal status. “Our lives have taken a 180-degree turn,” she says.
Biden announced Tuesday that in coming months his administration will allow spouses of U.S. citizens without legal status to apply for permanent residency and eventually citizenship without first having to leave the country for a period of up to 10 years. About 500,000 immigrants could benefit, according to senior government officials.
To qualify, an immigrant must have lived in the United States for 10 years and be married to a U.S. citizen as of Monday. Zúniga’s husband is not eligible because he was not in the United States.
“Imagine: this would be a dream come true,” said Zúniga, who works part-time at her father’s trucking company in Houston. “My husband could be with us. We could focus on the well-being of our children.”
Every immigration benefit — even ones as sweeping as Biden’s election-year offer — has deadlines and other eligibility requirements. In September, the Democratic president extended temporary status to nearly 500,000 Venezuelans living in the United States as of July 31, 2023. Those who arrived a day later were out of luck.
The Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has protected hundreds of thousands of people who came to the United States as young children from deportation and is colloquially known as DACA, required applicants to enter the United States on June 15, 2012 States had to be and have been in the country continuously for the past five years.
About 1.1 million spouses in the country are illegally married to U.S. citizens, according to advocacy group FWD.us, meaning hundreds of thousands are ineligible because they have been in the United States for less than 10 years.
Immigration advocates were generally thrilled with the scope of Tuesday’s announcement, just as Biden’s critics called it a terribly misguided giveaway.
Angelica Martinez, 36, wiping away tears as she sat next to her children, ages 14 and 6, watched Biden’s announcement at the Houston office of FIEL, an immigrant advocacy group. A U.S. citizen since 2013, she described an outpouring of emotions, including regret that her husband was unable to travel to Mexico five years ago due to the death of his mother.
“Sadness and joy at the same time,” said Martinez, whose husband came to Houston 18 years ago.
Brenda Valle of Los Angeles, whose husband has been a U.S. citizen since 2001 and, like her, was born in Mexico, has renewed her DACA permit every two years. “We can start planning for the longer term, for the future, rather than what we can do in the next two years,” she said.
Magdalena Gutiérrez of Chicago, who has been married to a U.S. citizen for 22 years and has three daughters who are U.S. citizens, said she felt “a little more hopeful” after Biden’s announcement. Gutiérrez, 43, would like to travel more around the United States without fear of a confrontation with law enforcement that could lead to her deportation.
Allyson Batista, a retired Philadelphia teacher and U.S. citizen, married her Mexican husband 20 years ago. She recalled her lawyer telling him he could leave the country for 10 years or “stay in the shadows and wait for a change in the law.”
‘When we got married, I was naive at first and thought, ‘Okay, but I’m American. This won’t be a problem. We are going to fix this,” Batista said. “I learned very early on that we were dealing with a pretty difficult circumstance and that it would be impossible for us to successfully move forward in an immigration process.”
The couple has raised three children who are pursuing higher education. Batista is waiting for details on how her husband can apply for a green card.
“I’m hopeful,” Batista said. “The next 60 days will really tell. But of course more than happy, because every step forward is a step towards a final solution for all types of immigrant families.”
About 50,000 noncitizen children whose parents are married to a U.S. citizen could also qualify, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity. Biden also announced new regulations that will make it easier for some DACA beneficiaries and other young immigrants to qualify for longstanding work visas.
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Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles, Melissa Perez Winder in Chicago and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.
