The president of United States, Joe Bidencelebrated this Tuesday the creation of a new plan to regularize more than half a million undocumented migrants and pointed out that this is a “common sense” measure. The program allows migrants who do not have legal status in the US and are married to Americans to begin the process to obtain a residence permit without having to leave the country. The decision comes less than five months before a presidential election in which migration management became a central issue for the population.
“Continue embracing migration”
The program announced by Biden is based on a legal figure known as “parole”, which grants those who are already in the United States protection against deportation and allows them to apply for a work permit. With this permit, which will be valid for three years, migrants who entered the country irregularly and are married to US citizens can apply for residency and, eventually, citizenship.
“I am not interested in making immigration and the border a political game”he assured Biden at an event at the White House attended by legislators, officials and activists who defend the rights of migrants. The new immigration relief is one of the most important since Barack Obama’s administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012.
Biden’s speech took place, precisely, at an event to celebrate 12 years of DACAthat allowed more than 800 thousand people to obtain a work permit and be protected from deportation. During his speech, the president resumed the pro-immigrant rhetoric that helped bring him to the presidency, nuanced under a defense of the restrictions on asylum on the border with Mexico that he enacted two weeks ago.
“Since we implemented my order, crossings have decreased by 25 percent at the border”said Biden, who defended himself against criticism of his heavy-handed policies with migration from Mexican territory, which came from organizations such as the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and Amnesty International and from the most progressive sector of his own party. “I refuse to believe that to continue embracing migration you have to give up having a secure border,” he said.
Biden further acknowledged that “Americans’ good faith is being tested by their fears about the border.” “They don’t understand much” of what is happening in that region, he stressed, accusing former President Donald Trump of capitalizing on those fears to promote xenophobic rhetoric. The ceremony took place in the East Room of the White House, where in addition to first lady Jill Biden there were legislators from her own party and members of her government, including the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the leader of the Democratic majority. in the Senate, Chuck Schumer.
The details of the new plan
The government hopes that the regularization plan announced this Tuesday will come into force this summer (which in the United States runs from June 21 to September 23) and will give migrants the opportunity to take only the first step in the process to obtain a residence permit that can be extended for years. The migrants who will be able to benefit from this program lived in the US for an average of 23 years, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security.
To request this relief, the person must have married a US citizen before June 17, 2024., having lived in the country for at least 10 years and not having been deported in the past. Children under 21 of those married to Americans who also do not have legal status can also obtain permission. However Migrants who have been deported from the US in the past do not qualify for this protection.
In theory, undocumented people can obtain residency if they marry an American. However, to do so they must leave the country and go to an embassy, which carries the risk of being banned from entering again for periods of 3 to 10 years, in retaliation for having been in the US without legal status. The government estimates that about 500 thousand migrantsin addition to “about 50 thousand stepchildren of Americans”, They will be able to benefit from the new regulations.
Voices for and against
Migration is one of the issues that most concern Americans ahead of the November elections in which Biden will seek re-election against Trump, who during his term wanted to end DACA alleging that it was unconstitutional. Republicans accuse the president of not doing enough to stop it and a part of the electorate asks him to toughen immigration policybut the left wing of his party and migrant advocates protest every time he does that last bit.
This Tuesday, Trump’s allies criticized the new regulations. The deputy Marjorie Taylor Greene I affirm that Biden “wrote free citizenship executive order to buy votes”. Congressman Josh Brecheen, of Oklahoma, maintained that “with one stroke of the pen, President Biden now protects 550,000 illegal aliens from deportation, in an effort to reassure their families in the hope of garnering votes for the next elections.”
But migrant advocacy groups were satisfied. The new regulations “are morally correct, economically sound and politically intelligent”held Rebecca Shi, director of the American Business Immigration Coalition. “This policy will help keep families together and is popular with voters,” said Deirdre Schifeling, political director of the influential American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The announcement was also received with open arms by the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who highlighted that it represents “advance and I am glad that President Biden is doing it.” “The news is very good that Mexican families in the United States are going to be regularizedespecially students, young people. It is worthy of recognition“López Obrador stated at a press conference.
Two candidates, two styles
Biden negotiated for months a bipartisan immigration package that would have introduced the strictest policies in decades. He got the go-ahead from the Senate but crashed when the Republican-controlled House refused to even consider it. This month the Democratic president signed a decree that restricts the entry of migrants through the border with Mexico when there are more than 2,500 irregular crossings on the seven-day average.
While Biden is between a rock and a hard place, Trump repeats ad nauseam in his campaign events that migrants “are poisoning the blood” of the country, but he confronts the president over the Hispanic vote. Until now, they have mostly opted for Democrats, although in recent years this community’s support for Republicans has increased, as seen in the 2020 elections with Trump.
“This Biden amnesty is a direct attack on American democracy”said trump at a campaign event from Wisconsin. The Republican magnate mentioned on Monday on his Truth Social platform the arrest in 2023 of a Salvadoran accused of raping and killing a woman. “Now Rachel Morin’s five young children will grow up without their mother because Corrupt Joe refuses to close the border,” Trump said, noting that “in fact, this week Biden is preparing to give MASSIVE AMNESTY to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens!”
