WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is considering a plan to protect undocumented immigrants who are spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation and give them work permits, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
Sources stressed that the offer is not final and time is running out. The program, known as “parole in place,” would also make it easier for some undocumented immigrants to obtain green cards and a path to U.S. citizenship. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been briefed on the proposal, one of the sources said.
A White House spokesman declined to comment on the details.
“As we’ve said before, the administration continues to explore a range of policy options, and we remain committed to taking action to fix our broken immigration system,” the spokesman said.
The debate follows immigration advocates and Democratic lawmakers called the administration favoring long-term undocumented immigrants and also as President Joe Biden tries to court Latino voters in key battleground states like Nevada and Arizona.
Biden made the announcement during a speech at the White House last week is an executive measure tightening asylum restrictions outside legal ports of entry. Under the new policy, if the seven-day average of illegal border crossings exceeds 2,500 at any time, migrants who enter the United States between legal ports of entry — with some exceptions — will be barred from claiming asylum and face deportation. assembly questions On how the campaign will work without new funding from Congress.
Biden also teased more action on immigration.
“In the coming weeks, I will be talking about how we can make our immigration system fairer and more equitable,” he said. “Let’s solve the problem and stop fighting about it.”
If passed, the protections for undocumented spouses of US citizens could be the federal government’s largest immigration relief program since 2012, when then-President Barack Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. It allowed immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children to remain in the country.
The Biden administration is facing criticism from all sides on immigration. Republicans argued that his asylum restrictions were too little, too late. Some Democrats saw the move as a betrayal of Biden’s 2020 campaign promise to introduce more humane policies at the border.
During the Biden administration, the number of undocumented migrants crossing the southern border reached approximately 10 million. Earlier this year, Republicans in Congress — at the urging of Donald Trump — blocked a bipartisan border security bill that the White House said would ease the crisis. GOP House members, including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the bill did not go far enough.
“Our colleagues across the aisle have not acted,” Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., said during a visit to the White House last week. “There are a lot of other things that I would like to see the president act on in the near future.”