Immigration: Who will benefit from Biden’s order to regularise 500,000 undocumented migrants in the US

United States President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a new policy to protect millions of undocumented immigrants who are spouses of American citizens from deportation.

According to the White House, about 500,000 people will benefit from this.

Marrying a U.S. citizen provides a path to citizenship.

However, when an immigrant enters the country illegally and then becomes the spouse of an American, he or she must return to his or her place of origin to apply for permanent residency, a process that can take years.

For this reason, many choose to stay rather than leave their families and risk deportation.

Instead, with the new measure, immigrants who have been in the US for at least 10 years will be able to apply for permanent residency and eventually citizenship without leaving the country. They also Will allow you to work legally.

In the middle of an election year, migration is a headache for Biden, who recently issued another executive order to stem the record arrivals of migrants at the US border and Mexico.

At an event at the White House on Tuesday, the Democratic president remarked that the new policy would help the US immigration system Be less “inappropriate” For the benefit of immigrants, married couples, and all Americans.

His government also believes that the executive order will benefit 50,000 youth under the age of 21 Whose parent is married to a US citizen.

“The actions I announce today will take effect later this summer,” the president said at a news conference.

“The action I’m taking today has the overwhelming support of the American people, regardless of what the other team says,” he said, referring to Republicans.

The news from the White House comes as the United States celebrates the 12th anniversary of DACA, which protected more than 530,000 immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation, known today as. The Dreamers,

On Monday, senior Biden administration officials said spouses of US citizens with irregular immigration status would be eligible if they have lived in the country She was 10 years old and got married on 17 June Of this year.

Couples are not required to be married for any specific period of time.

Those who qualify They will have three years to apply for permanent residency and will be eligible for Three-year work permit,

On average, the White House believes people eligible for the process have been in the U.S. for 23 years. The majority will have been born in Mexico.

They will be granted what they call “in-place parole” He will be allowed to stay in America. Whereas your situation has changed.

NumbersUSA, an organization that advocates for stricter immigration controls, has dubbed the new policy “Incontinent”,

The organization’s executive director, James Massa, said in a statement: “Instead of stopping the worst border crisis in history, President Biden has overstepped his executive authority by using an unconstitutional process, bypassing voters and their elected representatives in Congress, to send a message that amnesty is available to people who entered the United States illegally.”

For his part, Alex Kuik, an immigration lawyer and professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told the BBC that although the action only affects a “small group”, it marks a “start” for a part of the immigrant population that has historically faced complications in normalizing their status in the country, even if they are eligible.

Tuesday’s executive order is a stark contrast to another sweeping immigration order issued by the president in early June. which allows officials to immediately deport immigrants who enter the United States illegally without their asylum applications being processed.

Both policies were finalised in just two weekshas shed light on the complicated tangle in which Biden finds himself regarding this issue.

“Biden is always in a difficult position,” Republican strategist Doug Heye told the BBC. “No matter what you do, you’ll get criticism. This is a perfect example.”

“He’s doing poorly among Hispanic voters, so he’s trying to take steps to attract a lot of votes. But that could also cost him votes,” Hay added. “These are, by definition, mixed messages.”

The BBC attempted to contact the Biden campaign for comment, but had not received a response by the time of publishing this story.

The asylum ban announced on June 5, which is now the subject of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, was widely criticized by immigration activists and even some of the president’s Democratic allies.

While the number of migrant arrivals and arrests at the US-Mexico border has risen there has been a decrease this year After reaching all-time highs at the start of the Biden administration, surveys show widespread concern across the country about the issue.

A May Gallup poll found that 18% of American voters consider immigration their top issue, up from 27% in April, the third consecutive month it topped the list of concerns.

Polls this year have repeatedly shown that many voters trust Trump more on immigration and the border than they trust Biden.

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