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Biden Acts to Legalize Undocumented Spouses of US Citizens, Advancing Humane Immigration Reform [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-06-18  

By Karen Rubin, News-Photos-Features.com, editor@news-photos-features.com

The White Nationalists attack on immigrants, their determination desire to shut down the border completely and deport 11 million undocumented individuals who have been living and working and contributing in the US for decades, is linked to the movement to ban abortions and contraception and force women to bear children, even on pain of death or poverty.

In contrast to the claim that we need to shut down the border because migrants are taking jobs (or actually Blacks, as Trump put it to curry favor among Black voters), there are an estimated 8 million job openings that Americans can’t or won’t fill. And if you look around at who is getting the Nobel prizes, becoming our Valedictorians and Salutorians and winning the national contests, it is almost invariable an immigrant or a child of an immigrant.

On the other hand, the White Nationalists see the need to force women to have babies – preferably Christian ones or at least adopted into Christian homes – to meet the declining birth rate and need for low-cost labor.

“Corporate Democrats and many Republicans have settled on immigration as the primary solution to declining birth rates because it’s cheap — they don’t have to contribute money toward raising these workers,” wrote Jenny Brown in the Jacobin in 2022. “And they have been happy to leave immigrants in a legal twilight zone because it undermines workers’ power to organize, unionize, and vote. Still, immigrant workers have been powerful constituencies pushing pro-labor victories. This tendency has created a desire on the Right to make up the baby deficit with domestic births, preferably Euro-Americans, who they hope can be induced to identify with their white exploiters...All these Republicans want to make abortion illegal federally, and they attacked contraceptive coverage in Obamacare.”

The White Christian Nationalists haven’t disguised their concern that the population is dwindling and they want babies to become Christian low-wage workers (they haven’t raised the minimum wage from $7.25 in decades). At the same time, Republicans prevent policies that make childbirth, healthcare and childcare accessible and affordable, impoverishing women and families, and stripping them of their economic and political power.

This is the “common cause” of Capitalists and White Christian Nationalists that began with the mutual pact to oppose climate action and corporate (environmental) regulation in exchange for reversing support for immigration (poisoning the blood) and anti-abortion/contraception (when companies have benefitted from women able to fulfill their career aspirations, albeit at higher salary than they would prefer to pay).

Look at the actions the far right has taken: eliminating child labor laws to permit children to work in factories, actually lowering the age that a girl can be married off, while eliminating school lunch programs (can’t afford it), blocking efforts to make child care and healthcare affordable and accessible. Even denying a pregnant woman facing a medical emergency the emergency care the law requires.

The common denominator between these two seemingly contradictory objectives is cruelty and control.

As for the bloodlust for violence and cruelty, you only have to remember back to how infants and toddlers were yanked from their mother’s arms and then purposefully lost in the system – rendered orphans – and children were shoved into cages and detention centers under Trump’s family separation policy that they are more than happy to restore.

From his first day in office, President Biden has made an effort to reverse those policies, reunite families, while at the same time doing his level best to restore order at the border. This is despite Republicans refusal to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform which would fund the immigration judges, infrastructure, border agents and technology, and would streamline the process for adjudicating asylum claims, that now can take six years or more. As it is, 80 percent of asylum claims are rejected. And Biden has just infuriated progressives (and prompted another lawsuit) by imposing a policy to shut the border when illegal arrivals exceed 2,500 a day, and to immediately dismiss asylum claims so people are immediately “repatriated.”

This week, exactly 12 years after Obama introduced the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program that provided some legalized status for 800,000 young people (after the Republican Congress then refused to enact Comprehensive immigration Reform), President Biden is introducing a policy to help keep families together. Under this new policy, an undocumented person who is legally married to a US citizen and who has lived in the United States for 10 years as of June 17, 2024, can apply for permanent legal status without first leaving the country and their family for what could be years. Undocumented stepchildren of a U.S. citizen can also apply for legal status.

The president would exercise his authority to grant the undocumented spouses “parole in place,” a designation that would permit them to remain in the country, work legally and gain access to a pathway to permanent residency.

Basically he would be providing to the undocumented spouse the same straightforward path to a green card for immigrants who enter the country lawfully and end up marrying an American. But as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration three decades ago, Congress made it more difficult to obtain a green card through marriage for people who crossed the border without a visa.

“President Biden believes securing the border is essential and in expanding lawful pathways and keeping families together,” an administration official told a press briefing. “Two weeks ago, he announced additional actions to secure southern border when entry levels are high, after Congressional Republicans voted two times against the fairest, most comprehensive reform in decades. Entries are down, repatriations are up.”

Congressman Tom Suozzi, who has long advocated for commonsense, humane immigration reform and was invited to the White House for Biden’s announcement, had appealed to Biden to use his authority to address this problem and applauded this proposed action.

"Everyone already believes that if you marry a U.S. citizen, then you become a citizen. For over one million people living in the U.S. for the last 10 years, that has not been the case. Today's action rights that wrong and infuses our businesses with legal labor from neighbors who have lived here for over a decade. It keeps families together and strengthens our economy." said Congressman Tom Suozzi (NY-03). “Today's action, paired with the White House's recent action to fix the asylum system, is a clear sign that people are beginning to get serious about tackling immigration and border security. We must have “order at the border” and we must fix our immigration system. These executive orders are important, but now we must pass substantial bipartisan legislation."

The administration estimates the new policy could benefit about 500,000 undocumented spouses and 50,000 undocumented stepchildren of US citizens.

Providing a legalized status and work permits would go far to address the nation’s labor shortage, spur economic activity, and add to the government’s tax coffers- as much as $16 billion in GDP growth. We need more workers to bolster Medicare and Social Security because there are too few workers to support the numbers of retirees who are living longer. It would also reduce the cost and burden on municipalities in providing services.

Biden made this proposal on the 12-year anniversary since President Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which has provided 800,000 Dreamers the ability to work lawfully, pursue an education, open businesses, and contribute their enormous talents to make our communities better and stronger.

But their status is constantly imperiled since Trump rescinded DACA in 2017, then told Congress to come up with a better plan, and then nixed every plan then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed until McConnell said he wouldn’t bother.

It’s the same with the Comprehensive Immigration Reform that was so meticulously worked out with Conservative Republicans – which omitted the “poison pill” of any pathway to citizenship in order to make it more salient to Republicans – only to have Trump, yet again, instruct Republicans to kill the bill because he wanted to be able to pound the border crisis to election.

“I’m proud of the contributions of Dreamers to our country and I am committed to providing Dreamers the support they need to succeed,” President Biden stated. “That’s why I directed the Department of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to ‘preserve and fortify’ DACA, and that’s why we continue to vigorously defend the DACA rule in court. That’s also why last month, the Department of Health and Human Services took the historic step of expanding access to affordable, quality health coverage to DACA recipients through the Affordable Care Act.”

In a further action, Biden directed Homeland Security to join the State Department to more efficiently facilitate employment-based nonimmigrant visas for eligible individuals, including DACA recipients and undocumented noncitizens, who have graduated from an accredited US institution of higher education.

“By clarifying and enhancing the existing process, the Department of State’s policy will give US employers increased confidence that they can hire the talent they need, and that they will be able to quickly get to work,” the administration stated. “We recognize a national interest to making sure people who are educated in the US are able to put their skills in US for benefit of our country.”

“Today's action, paired with the White House's recent action to fix the asylum system, is a clear sign that people are beginning to get serious about tackling immigration and border security,” Suozzi stated. “We must have “order at the border” and we must fix our immigration system. These executive orders are important, but now we must pass substantial bipartisan legislation."

In the White House press call with Biden officials, the Biden Administration expressed confidence that his new policy would withstand the inevitable White Nationalist lawsuits that will come.

The White House provided this fact sheet on President Biden’s new actions to keep families together:

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Keep Families Together

Since his first day in office, President Biden has called on Congress to secure our border and address our broken immigration system. As Congressional Republicans have continued to put partisan politics ahead of national security - twice voting against the toughest and fairest set of reforms in decades - the President and his Administration have taken actions to secure the border, including:

Implementing executive actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum when encounters are high;

Deploying record numbers of law enforcement personnel, infrastructure, and technology to the Southern border;

Seizing record amounts of fentanyl at our ports of entry;

Revoking the visas of CEOs and government officials outside the U.S. who profit from migrants coming to the U.S. unlawfully; and

Expanding efforts to dismantle human smuggling networks and prosecuting individuals who violate immigration laws.

President Biden believes that securing the border is essential. He also believes in expanding lawful pathways and keeping families together, and that immigrants who have been in the United States for decades, paying taxes and contributing to their communities, are part of the social fabric of our country. The Day One immigration reform plan that the President sent to Congress reflects both the need for a secure border and protections for the long-term undocumented. While Congress has failed to act on these reforms, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to strengthen our lawful immigration system. In addition to vigorously defending the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals) policy, the Administration has extended Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients and streamlined, expanded, and instituted new reunification programs so that families can stay together while they complete the immigration process.



Still, there is more that we can do to bring peace of mind and stability to Americans living in mixed-status families as well as young people educated in this country, including Dreamers. That is why today, President Biden announced new actions for people who have been here many years to keep American families together and allow more young people to contribute to our economy.



Keeping American Families Together

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.

This new process will help certain noncitizen spouses and children apply for lawful permanent residence - status that they are already eligible for - without leaving the country.

These actions will promote family unity and strengthen our economy, providing a significant benefit to the country and helping U.S. citizens and their noncitizen family members stay together.

In order to be eligible, noncitizens must - as of June 17, 2024 - have resided in the United States for 10 or more years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen, while satisfying all applicable legal requirements. On average, those who are eligible for this process have resided in the U.S. for 23 years.

Those who are approved after DHS’s case-by-case assessment of their application will be afforded a three-year period to apply for permanent residency. They will be allowed to remain with their families in the United States and be eligible for work authorization for up to three years. This will apply to all married couples who are eligible.

This action will protect approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.

Easing the Visa Process for U.S. College Graduates, Including Dreamers

President Obama and then-Vice President Biden established the DACA policy to allow young people who were brought here as children to come out of the shadows and contribute to our country in significant ways. Twelve years later, DACA recipients who started as high school and college students are now building successful careers and establishing families of their own.

Today’s announcement will allow individuals,

including DACA recipients and other Dreamers, who have earned a degree at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education in the United States, and who have received an offer of employment from a U.S. employer in a field related to their degree, to more quickly receive work visas.

Recognizing that it is in our national interest to ensure that individuals who are educated in the U.S. are able to use their skills and education to benefit our country, the Administration is taking action to facilitate the employment visa process for those who have graduated from college and have a high-skilled job offer, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers.

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