Biden heeds calls from Hill Dems, announces new anti-deportation protections
An executive order the president signed today also streamlines the process for DACA recipients to obtain work visas and fulfills a top request from Hispanic lawmakers on an urgent policy priority.
President Joe Biden signed a major executive order this afternoon that could put hundreds of thousands of undocumented spouses who are married to US citizens on a pathway to citizenship and allow young adults without official authorization to cut through bureaucratic red tape to gain work approval.
Under the executive order, noncitizens who are legally married to US citizens and have resided in the US for more than 10 years as of June 17, 2024, can apply for lawful permanent residence within three years without the threat of deportation.
The Department of Homeland Security estimates that this process could protect approximately 500,000 spouses of US citizens and around 50,000 noncitizen children under 21 whose parents are married to US citizens.
The order also will allow individuals, including recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and other Dreamers, who have earned a degree from an accredited college or university and have received a job offer from a US employer to receive a work visa quicker.
A senior administration official said a formal notice with further information will be released in the coming weeks and anticipates the process will open by the end of the summer.
The White House believes the president’s action today, combined with an asylum-focused executive order Biden signed earlier this month, hits the sweet spot between keeping mixed-status families together and deterring irregular migration at the southern border at a time when immigration remains a political liability for him.
It also empowers Biden to draw a clearer contrast between his all-of-the-above approach to immigration reform and former President Donald Trump’s family separation policy and promises of a mass deportation operation if re-elected in November.
The move also fulfills a sustained request from a coalition of Hill Democrats, led by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who have pushed the president to exhaust the limits of his executive authority to protect immigrant communities left in the lurch after decades of meaningful legislative inaction on the issue.
“There’s already a system in place for people we’re talking about today. But the process is cumbersome, risky and it separates families,” Biden said during an event at the White House to celebrate the 12th anniversary of DACA, the Obama-era program that allows eligible undocumented immigrants to receive a renewable two-year protection from deportation and a work permit to gain employment in the US. “Today, I’m announcing a common-sense fix to streamline the process for obtaining legal status for immigrants married to American citizens who have lived here for a long time.”
Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), who chairs the CHC and was one of several members of Congress to join Biden on stage during the event, said Biden using his authority to provide these protections was the top request of a small group of CHC leaders who met with the president last month.
“Today is a happy day for many immigrant families across America. There will be tears of joy paired with sighs of relief as the significance of these executive actions by President Biden sets in for these families,” Barragán said in a statement this morning. “These families can go to sleep tonight knowing that their loved ones will not be going anywhere and that they will be on a path to becoming legal permanent residents.”
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who became the state’s first Hispanic senator in 2020 when he was appointed to replace Vice President Kamala Harris, said in an afternoon statement that the president’s actions are not only the morally right thing to do but also in the country’s best interest.
“The individuals and families who will benefit from these protections contribute immensely to our economy and our country,” he added. “They are living proof that the American Dream still exists—and today that American Dream moves forward. And I will continue fighting for the other long-term undocumented communities who deserve better than to live in the shadows.”
Noncitizens married to a US citizen may apply for a green card based on their marital status under current US law, but many must first leave the US and wait to be processed abroad, resulting in a prolonged, potentially indefinite period of separation from their US citizen family members. The new process—known informally as “parole in place”—prevents this population from facing deportation once approved by the DHS’s case-by-case assessment of their application.
Noncitizens who attempt to file an application before the process opens will have their application rejected. Those who pose a threat to national security or public safety will be ineligible for the process and subject to detention, removal or referral by DHS to other agencies for further vetting, investigation or prosecution as appropriate.
A senior administration official said the DACA work visa policy emerged from a national interest in making sure that people who are educated in the United States are able to put their education and skills to use in the United States for the benefit of our country. Recipients who have overstayed their visas submit to a consular process and apply for one outside of the country. The State Department will support DHS in providing American employees with the clarity and confidence they need to hire DACA recipients and allow those employees to quickly get to work.
“Paired together, these actions will advance our country’s interest in keeping American families together while ensuring anyone known to pose a threat to public safety cannot take part in our immigration system,” the official added.
The official said the administration anticipates that the majority of applicants will have been from Mexico, given the demographics of noncitizens who arrived 10 or more years ago, with some from northern Central America as well.
It’s unclear how much it will cost to apply for the process or the number of personnel the US Citizenship and Immigration Services will dedicate to it. Another senior administration official said the White House recognizes the significant backlog in both the family- and employment-based green-card system, but called on Congress to address this challenge.
“There are limits on the number of Immigrant visa that can be issued in any given fiscal year,” the official said. “And it has been a few decades since those numbers have been updated, so unfortunately we are not able to address that without the assistance of Congress.”
President Biden introduced a comprehensive immigration bill on his first day in office to provide pathways to citizenship and strengthen labor protections, prioritize smart border controls and address the root causes of migration. (The parole-in-place policy he approved today was also part of this proposal.) But the president and congressional Democrats chose to pass as much of his economic agenda as now-independent Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin would allow during the first two years of Biden’s term instead of spending political capital on the immigration proposal.
When Republicans took back the House after the 2022 midterms, they passed an anti-immigration bill that would have forced the Biden administration to restart construction of the border wall former President Trump made the cornerstone of his domestic agenda. The bill also would have required “transparency” from DHS regarding unauthorized border crossings and restrained the use of executive authority to advance immigration policy. Additionally, the legislation would end the practice of releasing migrants into the community while they wait for their immigration court hearings and instead hold them in immigrant detention and strengthen current laws to prevent children from human trafficking. But the bill received unanimous Democratic opposition and two GOP defections. The bill has languished in the Senate since then.
There appeared to be a breakthrough late last year when the Biden administration and congressional Democrats agreed to a demand from Republicans to exchange billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine for the most severe crackdown in border policy in decades. When the three senators who negotiated the bill dropped a draft of the text ahead of a procedural vote to advance the legislation, which, by the way, did not include any DACA protections, Trump announced his opposition to it—not because he disliked the bill but because he didn’t want Biden to score a policy victory ahead of the election.
That’s when Biden decided to go solo to address the issue with a separate order that empowers him to suspend asylum claims at the executive border when daily unauthorized crossings 2,500. The asylum ban would expire in 14 calendar days once daily encounters are less than 1,500 for seven consecutive days. A senior administration official said that encounters at the US-Mexico border are down while the number of migrants returned to their own country is up in the weeks since Biden signed the border order. But it’s worth noting that the trend could be a result of the unbearable summer heat dominating most parts of the country.
Former President Trump rescinded an expansion of DACA and announced a plan to sunset the program altogether in 2017. President Biden reinstated the program on his first day in office, but a federal district court judge blocked the administration from accepting new applications. While an appeals court decides if the program violates federal law, current DACA recipients can keep their status and apply for renewal. The case may eventually reach the Supreme Court.
The American Civil Liberties Union and seven other immigrants’ rights groups filed a federal lawsuit against the Biden administration’s border executive order arguing it effectively shuts off any access to asylum protections for the vast majority of people arriving at the US-Mexico border, no matter how strong their claims. (FWIW, the group supports the latest Biden executive order: “This act by the president is the type of humane and commonsense action that has made America stronger, with resilient, hardworking, and patriotic people coming to our cities and small towns, building lives and vibrant, stable communities, generation upon generation,” Deirdre Schiefling, the ACLU’s chief political and advocacy officer said in a statement.)
And there’s no reason to believe today’s action will escape a legal challenge of its own. But a senior administration official said the White House feels strongly that it’s on strong legal footing to make the announcement and is comfortable doing so.
Time will tell if their confidence is justifiable.
The White House said the announcement uses existing authorities. But Biden, who served in the Senate for 36 years before Obama tapped him as his running mate and understands more than most of his predecessors that congressional action carries more staying power than executive, acknowledged the limitations of his actions—no matter their significance—without a legislative solution to enshrine them into law.
“I know many people in this room also had concerns about the steps I’d taken. I heard and respect for many of you and many people behind me of concerns you felt,” Biden said of his sense of urgency to act in spite of gridlock on Capitol Hill. “As president, I had to take these actions. Every nation must secure its borders. It’s just that simple. And if Trump and the Republicans wouldn’t do it working with me, then I would do it on my own. And I did.”
House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), the highest-ranking Latino in Congress said in a statement Hill Republicans are the only ones standing in the way of an orderly border and humane immigration system.
“Instead of offering solutions, those on the other side of the aisle have torpedoed bipartisan compromise legislation to help address our broken immigration system and continue to spew lies and threaten hardworking families across America,” Aguilar added. “House Democrats continue to stand ready to build on President Biden’s track record and deliver relief for immigrant communities, expand legal pathways for those who want to work and contribute to their communities, address the root causes of migration and continue to ensure a safe and orderly border."
On the Senate side, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who also attended the White House event, invited his colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join Democrats in getting to work, a request that will go ignored by congressional Republicans chomping at the bit to win back the Senate and expand their House majority.
“Republicans must stop getting in the way of meaningful, comprehensive immigration reform and getting in the way of border security,” Schumer said. “We’re going to keep working until we get the job done, both in securing the border and in making America welcome to many immigrants who will work hard and become American citizens eventually.”