Biden Announces Amnesty for 500K Undocumented Spouses

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Facts

  • US Pres. Joe Biden announced an executive order on Tuesday granting extended stays to immigrants who are illegally in the country but married to US citizens.1
  • The move, called 'parole in place,' will give amnesty and a pathway to legal residency to around 500K spouses and 50K children under 21. Spouses must have been married by June 17 and lived in the country for at least 10 years.2
  • Those approved for the program, who under existing law could not be sponsored by their spouse for green cards, will now be put on a pathway to citizenship. A similar, but smaller, program for military families has existed for 10 years.3
  • Some applicants, whom the White House claims have been in the country for 23 years on average, will receive work permits. The plan also includes work permits for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients who have college degrees.4
  • The order is aimed at bypassing current law that requires illegal immigrants to leave the country while their applications are reviewed.2
  • This follows reports last week that noted the Biden admin. was considering parole in place for undocumented spouses, claiming that up to 1.2M people could be granted protection.5

Sources: 1Reuters, 2Forbes, 3wsj.com, 4NBC and 5Verity.

Narratives

  • Democratic narrative, as provided by New York Times. This is diplomacy at its finest. After cracking down on asylum crossings to reduce Americans' concerns over the border, Biden is now working to help the spouses of Americans who have patiently awaited legal residency for years. He's also being cautious about who's eligible by excluding those with criminal records. The president has taken swift action to protect the border while also simplifying the system for genuine residency applicants.
  • Republican narrative, as provided by CIS.org. This is a calculated effort to further discombobulate the immigration court system, leaving it ripe for fraud. As the government deals with a backlog of hundreds of thousands of regular cases, this new order allows illegals to either soar through the system thanks to a real marriage license or give them time to fabricate documents to abuse the system in the future. From open borders and expedited work permits to this new policy, immigration law no longer exists.

Predictions