Just two weeks after using executive authority to respond to the right to asylum with a measure questioned by the progressive base of the Democratic Party and human rights organizations, and with immigration considered one of the central issues in the elections facing Trump, US President Joe Biden announced yesterday a measure that opens the way to a settlement. Half a million migrants are in an irregular situation.
The measure could benefit immigrants who entered the country without papers at least ten years ago, who do not have a criminal record and who were married on June 17, 2024 to a US citizen. This measure will also benefit the children of the first children adopted by American couples, who are about 50,000 young people under the age of 21 according to the administration’s calculations.
Without leaving the country
Unlike what has happened so far with these illegal immigrants, they will not have to leave the country to process their residence permit (green card). Currently, to carry out these procedures, they are forced to return to their countries of origin. Beneficiaries will be protected from deportation through legal personality known as parole and will see an open way to regularize their status while they remain in the United States. They will add the possibility of obtaining work permits for three years, during which time they will have to apply for a green card.
The government plans to launch this program at the end of the summer, which administration sources have presented as the “most important” measure to address the situation of more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States exactly 12 years since DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, was implemented by Barack Obama when Biden was vice president.
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