Biden offers some migrants a path to citizenship. Here’s how the plan will work

WASHINGTON — A new Biden administration policy announced Tuesday will give an estimated half-million immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens but lack legal status in the United States a path to citizenship for themselves and their children.

It is one of President Joe Biden’s most sweeping immigration policies and one for which migrant advocates have lobbied the administration hard.

An overview of the new policy, who could benefit from it and how:

How did it work before?

Under U.S. immigration law, if an American marries someone who is not a citizen but lives in the United States, the process of applying for long-term permanent residency can be simple for the spouse – called a card green.

But if the spouse has been living in the United States illegally for a long time, the process becomes much more complicated.

They often have to leave their home country and apply. Depending on how long the person has lived in the United States without authorization, they may have to stay abroad for three to ten years before requesting return. They can apply for a waiver to avoid waiting so long abroad, but obtaining a waiver also takes on average about three and a half years.

They must travel abroad, apply at a consulate – where waits can be long – and be allowed to return to the United States.

“There is a risk of prolonged separation, especially if things go wrong,” said Elizabeth Taufa, a policy attorney and strategist for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

Faced with the prospect of leaving their families in America for a long process that might not work, many decide to stay and live in the shadows.

How is Biden changing immigration policy?

Under the new policy, many spouses without legal status can now apply for legal permanent residency without leaving the United States and potentially obtain citizenship. But this is not a blanket endorsement.

To be eligible, people must have lived in the United States for at least 10 years, not pose a security threat, and have been married before June 17, 2024. They will need to apply to the Department of Homeland Security, which reviews applications on June 17, 2024. On a case-by-case basis, the ministry wrote in a fact sheet describing the new policy. Immigrant spouses cannot have previously been admitted or paroled into the country.

Applicants will be vetted based on their immigration history, criminal history and more, including potential fraud, Biden’s announcement states.

Once Homeland Security approves an application, the White House said, the person will then have three years to apply for permanent residency and can obtain work authorization for up to three years.

About 1.1 million immigrants without legal status are married to U.S. citizens in the United States, according to the immigration advocacy organization FWD.us. The administration estimates that eventually, about half that number — about 500,000 — could be eligible for this program, plus about 50,000 of their children.

On average, spouses have lived in the United States for a little more than two decades, the White House said. A senior administration official said on a call with reporters that he expects the majority of people benefiting from the program to be from Mexico.

How does this fit into Biden’s other immigration policies?

The Biden administration has pursued a two-pronged strategy on immigration and border security over the past year and a half.

On the one hand, Biden has made it much harder to obtain asylum at the southern border and stepped up expulsions of those who do not qualify to stay. Immigration advocates vilified Biden’s decision this month to halt processing of asylum applications after arrivals at the southern border reached a certain number per day.

On the other hand, the administration has taken a number of steps to admit people into the country.

In the largest example, the administration last year created a program allowing people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to come to the United States if they have a financial sponsor, to pass a screening background and fly into an American airport. At the end of April, 434,800 people had arrived thanks to this program from these four countries.

Many advocates have pushed the administration to do more for immigrants who have lived in the United States illegally for decades.

What is changing in the “Dreamers” program?

In addition to the migrant spouse policy, the administration also announced changes intended to help people benefiting from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program qualify more easily for long-term work visas.

In 2012, the Obama administration offered people brought to the United States illegally by their parents as children protections from deportation and temporary work permits. Many of them, often called “Dreamers,” are now parents themselves.

Many companies that employ DACA recipients can apply for a work visa, which is more stable and provides a path to permanent residency, said Dan Berger, an immigration researcher at Cornell Law School and co-founder of Path2Papers, an organization that helps dreamers. apply for work visas and other means of obtaining legal permanent residence.

But to obtain the work visa, the DACA recipient must travel abroad, apply and obtain a waiver to re-enter the United States. Berger said the waiver process is very slow and offers little guidance, so employers and DACA recipients are not eager to try it.

“Having clear direction and expectations is really helpful,” he said.

And after?

The Department of Homeland Security must produce guidance on how the spouses program will work. A senior administration official said he anticipated the program would begin accepting applications by the end of the summer.

It will be up to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, to process all applications. This agency has historically struggled to obtain funding as it works to reduce backlogs and wait times.

Republicans and immigration opponents have sharply criticized the proposal, and it is almost certain that opponents will file lawsuits to try to stop it.