Miami.- When registration opened on Monday for approximately 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens to obtain legal status without having to leave the United States, Karen and Xavier Chavarría were disappointed. They had nothing to celebrate.
Like many other spouses of U.S. citizens, Karen left the country and went to her native Nicaragua voluntarily, following the steps of the legal process she had initiated to become a permanent resident. However, upon arriving in Managua, she was surprised by the news that because she had lived illegally in the United States, she was prohibited from returning and had to spend a few years in Nicaragua before returning home to New Jersey and joining her husband, Xavier, and their two children.
The new program, known as “parole in place,” offers a path to citizenship for spouses of Americans without the need, as Karen did, to leave the United States and remain abroad for up to 10 years.
This is one of the presidential decisions that could benefit the most immigrants since 2012, when another program known as DACA allowed temporary but renewable stays for hundreds of thousands of children and young people who had migrated to the United States illegally with their parents.
To be eligible, spouses must have lived continuously in the United States for 10 years before June 17, 2024, and have been legally married by that date. The government estimates that about 500,000 spouses and about 50,000 children could benefit.
“Without this process, hundreds of thousands of noncitizen spouses of Americans are likely to remain in the United States without legal status, leaving these families living in fear and uncertainty about their future,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a document Monday detailing the program. Forcing spouses to leave the country “harms the economic and emotional well-being of the family.”
Spouses who do not meet the required dates and other eligibility criteria face an agonizing choice: leave the United States voluntarily with the possibility of being left abroad for years before being eligible to reenter; or remain in the country without legal status.
Karen Chavarría returned to Nicaragua in 2017 and showed up at the U.S. consulate in Managua for an interview scheduled as part of her legal process to obtain permanent residency and reunite with her family in the United States. She had arrived in the United States in 2002 after crossing the border, and applied for legal status after marrying Xavier, who at 57 years old works in building maintenance in New York and lives in Garfield, New Jersey. Together they have two children born in the United States.
Since the family split up seven years ago, Xavier has traveled at least twice a year to see Karen, 41, and her 12-year-old son, who lives with her in Jinotega, north of Managua. Xavier said he can’t live in Nicaragua because he can’t find work there, and there’s no treatment for his diabetes. He also fears for his safety because his family has been in the political opposition for years. His 20-year-old daughter lives with him in New Jersey.
Karen has missed important moments in her daughter’s life, like her high school graduation and birthdays. She has been disappointed by the Biden administration’s program for spouses of U.S. citizens.
“It’s something we’ve been fighting for, and after so much struggle, we’ve arrived here without any hope,” she said, her voice breaking with tears in a video interview from Nicaragua.
It’s unclear how many spouses have left the United States voluntarily, but immigration attorney Eric Lee said it’s a “very significant” number.
Immigrants and immigration advocacy groups have urged the White House to include them in the new policy.
“The only reason so many are being punished is because they tried to come out of the shadows, they tried to follow the law,” said Lee, whose offices are in Michigan and California.
DHS did not respond to questions about whether people who left the country voluntarily would qualify, saying only that they “may be eligible to continue processing abroad.”
Groups that favor more immigration restrictions view the new policy as too generous. The Federation for American Immigration Reform, known as FAIR, said Monday that the program Biden is “clearly in a rush” to enroll people before he leaves office, making it difficult for a court to overturn their benefits once they are done with the process.
DHS said Monday that 64 percent of potential beneficiaries are from Mexico and 20 percent from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Those who meet the requirements will be able to remain in the United States for three years, protected by the authority of the process known as parole. The process begins with a payment of $580 and includes the possibility of applying for a work permit, legal residency, and eventually U.S. citizenship.
Individuals considered threats to national or public security and those convicted of what are considered serious crimes, including felony drunk driving, are disqualified, as are those who belong to a gang.
Juan Enrique Sauceda, 47, is waiting in Mexico for the government to allow him to return to the United States to reunite with his wife and two children after being deported in 2019. Like Karen, he went to a consular appointment for the family reunification process he had started and was told that he could not return to the United States.
Sauceda, who arrived in the United States at age 15 across the border and now lives in fear of insecurity in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras, is the only one of the four who does not have U.S. citizenship. His wife, whom he married in 2008, and their two children live in Houston.
“I want to go back to the United States because I grew up there, I have my wife, my children, everything,” Sauceda said. “I don’t fit in here.”
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