WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will host a White House event next week to celebrate an Obama-era directive that offered deportation protections to young undocumented immigrants, while his own administration prepares potential new benefits for others without legal status but with longstanding ties in the United States.
White House officials are closing in on a plan that would use Biden’s executive powers to protect spouses of U.S. citizens without legal status from deportation, offer them work permits and ease their path to permanent residency and ultimately U.S. citizenship, according to five knowledgeable people. the deliberations.
The people said those actions could be revealed as early as next week, although a White House official emphasized Thursday that no final decisions have been made on what, if anything, Biden will announce. As of earlier this week, Biden had not yet received a proposal for his final approval, adding to the uncertainty about the timing of any announcement. The president is currently in Italy participating in the Group of Seven summit of the world’s richest democracies.
But Biden telegraphed last week, as he rolled out his directive to crack down on asylum claims at the border — a move that has angered immigrant rights groups and many Democratic lawmakers — that he would announce other actions that would be more to the liking of advocates.
“Today I talked about what we need to do to secure the border,” Biden said at the June 4 event at the White House. “In the coming weeks – and I mean the coming weeks – I will be speaking about how we can make our immigration system fairer and more equitable.”
To protect Americans’ spouses, the government is expected to use a process called “parole-in-place.” It not only provides deportation protection and work permits to eligible immigrants, but also removes a legal barrier that prevents them from pursuing a path to a green card and ultimately U.S. citizenship.
That power has already been used for other groups of immigrants, such as members of the U.S. military or their family members who do not have legal status.
Because of Biden’s actions, White House officials were working on a plan that would offer parole to spouses of Americans who have been here at least five or 10 years, according to the people briefed on the deliberations. The people were granted anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.
The immigrant advocacy group FWD.us estimates that there are approximately 1.1 million immigrants without legal status who are married to Americans. Depending on how the Biden administration writes the proposal, the actual universe of people who could qualify for the president’s plan is likely much smaller.
Advocates also lobbied the White House to include benefits for immigrants without legal status who perform caregiving responsibilities for U.S. relatives, according to two of the people familiar with the discussions, although at this point it was considered much less likely that this provision would are entered. Allowing such health care providers to request a so-called “cancellation of removal” would impact immigrants, such as relatives of Americans, who have specific needs or disabilities.
Amid these deliberations, the White House invited lawmakers to an event Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to a person familiar with the event. The initiative was founded on June 15, 2012 by then-President Barack Obama to protect young immigrants who lacked legal status, known as “Dreamers.”
Although House lawmakers will be away from Washington during a recess, White House officials say it will be worth attending the event.
“We expect positive news,” said Rep. Nanette Barragán, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a Democratic group that has advocated for the White House to take action to provide relief to immigrants.
“I think it just says that we value our immigrants and the people who are part of the American fabric,” she said.
