Haiyun Jiang / New York Times
President Joe Biden, with Congressional and border community members behind him, hosts a 12-year-anniversary event for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in the East Room at the White House on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. A new Biden administration measure enables “Dreamers” to get work visas that could free them from relying on the DACA program, whose survival is in doubt.
Sunday, June 23, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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They are friends and neighbors, the smiling faces you see at the grocery store, community events and religious services. They are parents and volunteers whom everyone knows for their dedication to the PTA, Little League and scouting troops. They are loving husbands and wives, uncles and aunts, parents and grandparents, who work hard, contribute to our economy and make our communities safer and stronger.
But they aren’t Americans. At least not legally. Their devotion to their families prevents them from even trying to chase the dream of American citizenship.
Until now.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden revealed a long-awaited executive action that will grant undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens access a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship that they have been legally entitled to for decades but barred from accessing by bureaucratic nonsense.
That final point is worth reviewing because, despite numerous media reports to the contrary, Biden’s order does not create a “new” pathway to citizenship. Rather, it cleans up a pathway that was promised decades ago and that many Americans incorrectly believe is already available.
The order allows undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens who’ve lived in the U.S. for 10 or more years, as well as the children of undocumented spouses who are under the age of 21, the opportunity to apply for permanent residence and, eventually, citizenship.
Under current law, a non-U.S. citizen who is married to a U.S. citizen may only apply for permanent resident status if they entered the country legally or currently live outside the country.
Similarly, children who are born outside the U.S. to non-U.S. citizens (for example, a child from a previous relationship) but who now have a parent that is married to a U.S. citizen, are also prohibited from applying for permanent resident status unless they are outside the country or legally present in the U.S.
In other words, in most circumstances, those who entered the country illegally may only qualify for permanent residency and a pathway to citizenship by leaving the country and reentering legally.
This is an onerous requirement, but it’s not impossible.
Except — and this is a big exception — people who leave the United States after being unlawfully present in the country for more than one year, are prohibited from reentering legally for 10 years from the date of their departure. Even with a waiver, the wait time to reenter the U.S. averages more than three years.
Imagine being a person who was brought to the U.S. as a child, was raised here, fell in love with your high school sweetheart, got married and had a child of your own.
Now, after decades of life in the United States — the only place you’ve ever known as home — you are forced to choose between either: (1) remaining in the country illegally and being a loving spouse and parent or (2) willingly leaving your spouse and child behind to return to a place where you have never lived, know nothing about and is often dangerous, for anywhere from 3 to 10 years on the hope that you might be allowed to reenter the U.S. legally.
It’s not much of a choice. The contradictory nature of current U.S. law punishes people who try to pursue legal citizenship and incentivizes pursuing the American dream without American citizenship.
Biden’s order solves this problem in a way that doesn’t open the border to anyone who isn’t already here and isn’t already married to a U.S. citizen. Applicants will be vetted for previous immigration and criminal history, helping ensure the pathway is only open to those who are already essential threads in the fabric of American society and doing their part to be productive citizens.
It’s a policy that is logical, compassionate and gives more children the chance to grow up in thriving two-parent households without the looming fear that one of those parents may not come home because of a raid by immigration authorities.
People who are currently forced to remain in the shadows will be empowered to pursue additional education, start businesses and invest in the economy.
In the past, we have criticized Biden for failing to demonstrate the same high-level of leadership on immigration that he has in so many other political arenas. We continue to be critical of his plans to further erode the promise of humanitarian immigration and asylum in the U.S. Indeed, his reluctance to take meaningful action to fulfill the promise of asylum puts the lie to the idea that Biden is pursuing an open borders agenda.
But Tuesday’s executive action granting parole-in-place status to the spouses of U.S. citizens and their children demonstrates the thoughtfulness, morality and utilitarian practicality of a great leader. Congress should codify the order at its earliest convenience.
Love is a powerful emotion. Biden’s latest executive order will allow the love that spouses have for each other and that parents have for their children to become the love that a family has for the country that gave them a pathway to citizenship and that they proudly call home.
