(IntegrityTimes.com) – President Joe Biden’s administration is considering protection for undocumented migrants who are married to U.S. Citizens. The measures being proposed include protecting the migrants from deportation and granting them work permits. The move could secure temporary legal status and even pave the way to U.S. citizenship for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the country illegally.
The scheme being considered by the White House would grant the protections via the immigration parole authority, provided the illegal immigrants are married to American citizens. The “parole in place” policy could help the undocumented migrants bypass barriers in the country’s laws to eventually gain permanent residency.
The news follows Biden’s anticipated announcement to use executive action to deal with the southern border crisis. Former President Donald Trump called the action a “pathetic” attempt to make political gains on the key issue of immigration approaching the November presidential election. Biden’s efforts to clamp down on the border crisis have also been met with criticism from more progressive Democrats, who see it as veering towards the policies of the Trump administration.
The “parole in place” policy marks an attempt by Biden to win over Hispanic voters in key states. The policy highlights the conflicted position of a president seeking to adopt a harder stance on border crossings on the one hand while providing illegal immigrants with legal pathways to permanent settlement on the other.
Though Biden is still beating Trump among Latino voters by a reasonable margin, surveys conducted in April showed that the incumbent president is losing popularity among them compared to the former president, who is gaining support from the Hispanic community despite a history of controversial comments about Mexicans.
A congressional official, two current U.S. officials and two former officials spoke under condition of anonymity to reporters to discuss the planned policy, which has yet to be finalized in detail. The sources explained that the plan would benefit long-term U.S. residents more than new arrivals.
Angelo Hernandez Fernandez, a White House spokesman, said the Biden administration is looking at a number of policy options to fix what Democrats have repeatedly referred to as a “broken system”. Meanwhile, Biden’s executive action has already entered effect due to the weekly average of crossings per day having easily exceeded the new threshold limit of 2,500.
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