About 550,000 illegal immigrants are affected by the move, according to the White House.
President Joe Biden on June 18 announced that his administration will not deport many illegal immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens or whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.
Approximately 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens, as well as about 50,000 children, will be shielded from deportation and given the ability to gain legal status without leaving the United States, the White House said.
The new process requires illegal immigrant adults to have lived in the United States for at least 10 years as of June 17 and to be married to a U.S. citizen. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is managing the program.
President Biden plans to mark the program on Tuesday afternoon during an event celebrating the 12th anniversary of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a policy implemented under President Barack Obama’s administration while Biden was vice president.
The policy shields illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation and enables them to legally work in the United States.
As of Sept. 30, 2023, there were 544,690 immigrants with protection under the program.
The new process “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,” the White House said in a statement.
Typically, people who enter the country illegally must leave and obtain legal status before re-entering the United States.
Illegal immigration has spiked under President Biden, with 2.4 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2023 alone. On June 4, the Democrat signed an order that suspended asylum requests once the average number of daily encounters with illegal immigrants at the southern border exceeds 2,500. However, during that announcement, he hinted at additional actions that would assist illegal immigrants.
“In the weeks ahead—and I mean the weeks ahead—I will speak to how we can make our immigration system more fair and more just,” he said at the time.
