WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday protections for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens, potentially halting the threat of deportation for thousands of people married to U.S. citizens.
The President’s major executive action will allow undocumented spouses of U.S. citizen’s to obtain work permits as well as make their path to become permanent residents easier.
“Today I’m announcing a common sense fix to streamline the process for obtaining legal status for immigrants married to American citizens who live here and have lived here for a long time,” Biden said in remarks from the White House. “For those wives or husbands and their children who have lived in America for a decade or more but are undocumented, this action will allow them to file the paperwork for legal status in the United States.”
Under Biden’s executive action, children brought over to the United States, also known as “Dreamers”, to receive work visas. One of the major qualifications for the Dreamers includes graduating from a U.S. college or university, according to a source briefed on the matter.
The policy will allow nearly 500,000 undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to be allowed to apply for work permits on the condition they have lived in the United States for at least 10 years.
The White House declined to comment on the pending announcement on Monday.
“Obviously, we don’t have any policy announcement to make at this time, but the president is certainly going to continue to address what we’re seeing at the border,” White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre said during the White House press briefing. “The president has taken this very seriously. He wants to see action.”
The news comes as Democrats push the Biden administration to take a more aggressive approach on immigration in an election year, saying it could boost his chances with Latino voters in battleground states.
Recent polls have shown a rise in Latinos agreeing that Republicans would do a better job controlling the border over Biden. An NBC News survey found voters ranked immigration and the border second to inflation in key issues facing the country.
While campaigning in Wisconsin, Donald Trump said that if he’s elected in November, Biden’s new immigration policy would be “ripped up and thrown out.”
“It’s been a nonstop catastrophe, but one of crooked Joe’s most destructive moves yet is the lawless executive action he’s taken today,” Trump said. “Under this program, a deluge of illegals will be given immediate green cards and put on the fast track to rapid citizenship so they can vote.”
Biden’s approval rating has declined especially among Latinos with just 35 percent of them approving of his job in office. The President and the White House hope that announcing this new executive action can boost his support in key battleground states such as Arizona and Nevada.
“I also refuse to believe that for us to continue to be America that embraces immigration, we have to give up securing our border,” Biden said. “They’re false choices. We can both secure the border and provide legal pathways to citizenship.”
