After months spent alienating his base, Biden has announced new legal protections for certain undocumented people who have been living in the United States, offering a path to citizenship for those who have been living here for a decade or more and are married to American citizens. The White House claims the new policy would apply to about 500,000 spouses and 50,000 children.
If they don’t get expelled in the process. Claudia González entered the U.S. at age 15 and received work permits through DACA, but wanted to pursue a path towards legal residence. What she encountered, instead, was a system that forced her back into Mexico and away from her husband and son for 10 years. She was punished for trying to do things the “right” way and, after spending thousands of dollars in legal fees, now cannot appeal the decision.
Hopefully, people like Claudia will benefit from Biden’s order. And while AP calls this one of Biden’s “most sweeping immigration policies,” helping 500,000 out of 11 million undocumented immigrants is the smallest step in the right direction.
(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)
These new changes are still pretty dogshit, and nothing close to a permanent solution to the problem. There is even a provision in this program that people married after 17th of June 2024 don’t apply, meaning that some years down the line, the problem will just reappear again. Calling this a bandaid solution is an insult to bandaids.