Biden To Issue EO Protecting Undocumented Spouses & Children From Deportation Proceedings

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Biden moves to protect undocumented spouses, children from deportation in latest immigration push
Weeks after implementing new rules to limit the flow of asylum seekers across the southern border, Joe Biden today is set to announce a policy that will allow some undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to reside permanently in the country. The president’s move comes as polls show immigration is one of the top issues on voters’ minds ahead of the November election, and after he faced a backlash to the tighter asylum rules from advocates who argued they were no different from the hardline policies implemented under Donald Trump.

Biden’s re-election campaign argues the new rules are a marked contrast from the hardline policies Trump championed as president, when his administration separated migrant families at the US-Mexico border. “Joe Biden Is Fighting To Keep Families Together. Donald Trump Tears Families Apart,” read a press release from the campaign sent to reporters this morning. Biden is set to discuss immigration at a White House event scheduled for 2.45pm ET that will celebrate the 12th anniversary of Daca, a program that shields undocumented people brought to the US as children from deportation.

---

Biden campaign contrasts new rules on undocumented spouses, children with Trump policies
In a statement, Joe Biden’s re-election campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez contrasted the president’s new rule allowing undocumented spouses and children to stay in the country with the hardline immigration policies Donald Trump implemented as president, and has vowed to bring back if returned to the White House.

“Families belong together – it’s that simple. It’s why President Biden’s actions today are so important, and it’s also a powerful stark reminder of Donald Trump’s unforgivable legacy of ripping crying children away from their parents when he put in place his family separation policy,” Chavez Rodriguez said.

Here’s more: In fact, the somber reality is that if Trump gets the chance, he will go even further: reimplementing family separation, using the National Guard to round up and deport immigrants, and standing up massive detention camps. Not because it will fix our immigration system, but because Trump thinks it’s good politics to pick on vulnerable immigrants.

Joe Biden will not let that happen.

 

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Biden calls new policy a 'common-sense fix' for mixed-status families
Joe Biden said he intended to address the plight of families with mixed immigration statuses with his new order allowing undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to receive permanent residency.

Under the current procedure, undocumented people have to leave the country to apply for visas, with no guarantee they’ll get back in, Biden said. “So, they stay in America, but in the shadows, living in constant fear of deportation without the ability to legally work all this, even though, under the law today, they’re eligible for long term legal status,” Biden said.

He continued: Today, I’m announcing a common-sense fix to streamline the process for obtaining legal status for immigrants married to American citizens who live here and lived here for a long time.

For those wives or husbands and their children who have lived in America for a decade or more but are undocumented, this action will allow them to file a paperwork for legal status in the United States, allow them to work while they remain with their families in the United States.

Let’s be clear, this action still requires undocumented spouses to file all required legal paperwork to remain the United States, requires them to pass a criminal background check, and it doesn’t apply to anyone trying to come here today.

---

As he concluded his speech, Joe Biden said he believe it is possible to simultaneously secure the border and allow immigrants to flourish in the United States.

“The Statue of Liberty is not some relic of American history. It still stands for who we are. But I also refuse to believe that for us to continue to be America that embraces immigration, we have to give up securing our border. They’re false choices. We can both secure the border and provide legal pathways to citizenship. We have to acknowledge that the patience of goodwill the American people is being tested by their fears at the border. They don’t understand a lot of it,” Biden said.

He then laid into Donald Trump for some of his recent rhetoric against immigrants: These are the fears my predecessor is trying to play on when he says immigrants, in his words, are poisoning the blood of the country. When he calls immigrants, in his words, animals. When he was president, he separated families and children at the border, and now he’s proposing to rip spouses and children from their families and homes and communities and place them in detention camps. He’s actually saying these things. It’s hard to believe it’s being said, but he’s actually saying these things out loud, and it’s outrageous.