Democratic President Joe Biden’s government announced a new program that will allow an additional 500,000 migrants living in the country without legal status to regularize their situation. The information was transmitted by authorities in a call with journalists this Tuesday (18).
The decision is expected to primarily benefit people married to US citizens and comes less than five months before a presidential election in which migration management has become a central issue.
The new plan is considered one of the most important since Barack Obama’s administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, which allowed more than 800,000 immigrants to obtain work permits and protection from deportation.
However, despite confirmation of the new program, the new policies will take months to take effect and will give migrants the opportunity to take just the first step in the process of obtaining a U.S. residency permit, which could take years, the sources said. consulted.
The program is based on a legal concept known as “parole,” which gives those already on U.S. soil protection from deportation and allows them to apply for a work permit.
With this permission, which will be valid for three years, migrants who entered the country irregularly and are married to American citizens can apply for residency and, eventually, American citizenship.
“These people have deep family and community ties to the U.S.,” one of the officials promoting the measure said on a call with reporters.
To request this exemption, the person must have married a US citizen by June 17, 2024 and have lived in the country for at least 10 years.
Children under the age of 21 of those who are married to U.S. citizens and who also do not have legal status are also eligible.
However, according to authorities, 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 barred from re-entry for periods of three to ten years in retaliation for having been in the US without legal status.
This situation, authorities acknowledged, has left many families “living in fear and facing profound uncertainty about their future.”
The announced plan allows migrants to apply for residency, also known as a “green card,” while on American soil.
In addition to this program, the US government also announced on Tuesday that it will seek to “improve” the process by which some who arrived in the country as children and have not yet regularized their status can apply for work visas.
The State Department will create “guidelines” to provide more clarity and expedite the issuance of H1B visas for “dreamers” who graduated from a US university and have a “job offer” from an American company.
The White House announcements came just over two weeks after Biden imposed a series of restrictions on access to asylum at the border that were sharply criticized by human rights groups.
The Democrat, who became president based on a pro-immigration speech that made him the antithesis of former President Donald Trump, has taken increasingly coercive measures in relation to migration.
This latest immigration relief is interpreted by experts as an attempt to attract Latino voters, who are decisive in some important states, such as Arizona and Nevada, after having abandoned his campaign promise to offer a path to citizenship for the more than 11 million of undocumented immigrants.
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