Biden’s executive action aims to protect 500,000 illegal immigrants

President Joe Biden has issued new executive orders that could save hundreds of thousands of people from deportation by allowing certain spouses and children of undocumented U.S. citizens to apply for lawful permanent residency without leaving the country.

“Today, President Biden is announcing that the Department of Homeland Security will take action to ensure that U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children can keep their families together,” said a fact sheet released by the White House on Tuesday. “This new process will help certain noncitizen spouses and children apply for lawful permanent residency – a status for which they are already eligible – without having to leave the country.”

To qualify for protection, noncitizens must have lived in the United States for 10 years or more, be legally married to a U.S. citizen, and meet all legal requirements. According to the White House, those eligible for protection have lived in the United States for an average of 23 years.

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“These actions will promote family unity and strengthen our economy. They will bring significant benefits to the country and help U.S. citizens and their noncitizen family members stay together,” the White House statement said.

Applications are decided on a case-by-case basis. Those accepted into the program have three years to apply for permanent residency. During this time, they can stay with their families and are entitled to a work permit.

The White House estimates that this measure will protect “approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens and approximately 50,000 non-citizen children under the age of 21 whose parents are married to a U.S. citizen.”

In addition, the announcement will allow recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as minors, have earned a degree from an accredited U.S. institution of higher education, and have received a job offer from a U.S. employer in a field related to their degree to receive a work visa more quickly.

“Recognizing that it is in our national interest to ensure that U.S.-educated individuals can use their skills and education to benefit our country, the administration is taking steps to ease the work visa process for college graduates and individuals with a high-skilled job offer, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers,” the statement said.

The new executive actions come just weeks after Biden issued an executive order denying asylum to migrants entering the United States illegally because border patrol agencies are overwhelmed. At the same time, he continues to allow 2,500 people to enter the country every day, or more than 900,000 people annually.

Tuesday’s announcement drew widespread praise from faith-based immigration and resettlement agencies.

“We are encouraged to see the Biden administration protecting a vulnerable group of people who have made the United States their home,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

“This move will provide a sense of relief to the thousands of families with mixed immigration status who live in secrecy in this country and who qualify. The emotional strain these families have had to experience due to the uncertainty about their loved ones’ ability to stay in this country must have been immeasurable.”

Republican senators in the Senate criticized the executive branch’s actions ahead of the announcement. Republican Whip Senator John Thune of South Dakota said the plan would “increase the incentive for people to come here illegally.”

“I am sure they will be challenged,” Thune said, according to CNN.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told the news agency that a better solution would be to pass bipartisan immigration reform legislation, something Congress has failed to do for decades. Tillis was one of several Republicans who voted against the bipartisan border security bill earlier this year. Republicans accused the bill of failing to solve the border crisis and encouraging illegal immigration.

Given that the move is likely to be challenged in court, Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that passing legislation to that effect is the only way to ensure legal protections for eligible immigrants.

Amid a hotly contested 2024 presidential election, public polling suggests Americans widely disapprove of Biden’s handling of illegal immigration and the border. Real Clear Politics’ average of immigration polls conducted between May 15 and June 11 shows Biden trailing by 28 percentage points.