Biden's New Plan to Grant U.S. Citizenship to Half a Million Immigrants

Joe Biden, the President of the United States, has taken a step that could be costly in an election year by providing a pathway to U.S. citizenship for hundreds of thousands of immigrants with uncertain residency status. One of the goals of this plan may be to balance Biden's two-week-old decision to take a tougher stance on immigrants at the southern U.S. borders, which has caused dissatisfaction among many Democratic lawmakers as well as immigrant rights organizations. The White House announced on Tuesday, June 18, that the U.S. government will allow a specific group of spouses of U.S. citizens, whose residency status is currently unclear, to apply for residency and ultimately U.S. citizenship in the coming months. According to senior U.S. officials, this decision could affect about half a million people. The main requirements for this residency provision include a minimum of 10 years in the U.S. and being married to a U.S. citizen. These individuals will have three years to apply for permanent residency (green card), receive temporary work authorization, and thus be exempt from the risk of deportation if their applications are accepted. An unnamed U.S. official stated that about 50,000 stateless children, whose one parent is married to a U.S. citizen, will also be included in this provision. The official added that the duration of marriage to U.S. citizens is not a condition, but the marriage must have been registered before Monday, June 17, the day the regulations were approved by the President, and those who marry after this date will not be included. U.S. officials say that the administrative process for submitting applications is likely to begin in late summer, and the cost has yet to be determined. Biden will speak about this decision at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. According to the Associated Press, the White House has privately encouraged Democratic members of the House of Representatives, who are on recess this week, to come to Washington to attend Biden's speech. Biden's speech coincides with the twelfth anniversary of former President Barack Obama's decision, which provided many young immigrants with the opportunity to receive temporary work permits through an executive order known as 'Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals' (DACA), temporarily eliminating the risk of deportation for them. Biden's new plan allows some of these young immigrants to apply for more permanent work permits. The significance of this part of Biden's decision is that the regulations established during Obama's presidency are currently facing multiple legal challenges, and if the work permits for young immigrants are extended, their legal status will be further stabilized, reducing the likelihood of their deportation compared to before. Biden's decision, which includes spouses of U.S. citizens, is not unprecedented. Experts and immigrant rights advocates say this decision effectively expands the scope of regulations established during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. According to Andrea Flores, a former policy advisor in the Obama and Biden administrations and current vice president of a nonpartisan immigration organization, during previous presidencies, the right to apply for permanent residency and ultimately U.S. citizenship without the requirement to leave the country and start this administrative process at U.S. consulates was granted to foreign spouses of military personnel. Under Biden's decision, this right is now granted to about half a million immigrants who have married U.S. civilians in recent years. Two weeks ago, Biden announced that the government would no longer accept asylum applications from immigrants who do not approach official centers at the southern U.S. borders. According to U.S. executive officials, this regulation has led to a decrease in cases of illegal border crossing from Mexico and asylum requests outside designated centers. Immigrant advocacy organizations have filed lawsuits against this presidential decision in U.S. courts.