Javier Quiroz illegally crossed the United States border from Mexico with his mother when he was 3 years old, and he has followed that step all his life.
He is now 33 years old and a registered nurse married to a US citizen in Texas who can sponsor him for a green card. They have never been enforced because federal law requires Quiroz to first leave the United States, with no guarantee that he can return.
President Biden announced Tuesday, with Quiroz at his side, that immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens can apply for permanent residency without leaving the country, eliminating their fears of being separated from their families and putting them on the path to U.S. citizenship.
“The actions I am taking today have the overwhelming support of the American people, no matter what the other team says,” Biden said, referring to Republican critics of his immigration policies. “The reason is simple: it embraces the American principle that we should keep families together.”
Amid prolonged applause, Quiroz thanked the president for taking steps to “protect American families like mine.”
On June 18, President Biden cleared the way for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens to apply for citizenship. (Video: Erin Patrick O’Connor/The Washington Post)
The announcement at the White House captured a rare moment of Democratic joy over immigration, one of Biden’s weak points as the November election approaches after years of record border apprehensions. Like President Barack Obama before him, Biden sought to unite Americans by highlighting the country’s immigrant tradition.
Behind him were lawmakers and officials such as Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the son of former undocumented immigrants from Mexico, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban immigrant who was impeached by the House in February in a reprimand. to Biden’s decision. border policies.
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, on Tuesday criticized Biden’s plans as a political effort to court voters. Trump has promised to carry out mass deportations of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States if he is elected to a second term.
“Biden only cares about one thing: power, and that is why he is granting mass amnesty and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegals who he knows will ultimately vote for him and the Open Border Democratic Party,” Trump said in a statement, using a derogatory term for unauthorized immigrants. “Biden has created another invitation to illegal immigration through his mass amnesty order.”
The White House announcement marked the 12th anniversary of Obama’s election-year decision to grant work permits to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. That program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), helped more than 800,000 people, including Quiroz, but did not create a path to permanent residency.
DACA has been on shaky ground since Trump and other Republicans tried to end it in 2017. A federal judge declared it illegal and it is limited to existing applicants, who must renew work permits every two years.
Biden emphasized Tuesday that he will continue to monitor the border, but said Congress is long overdue to expand legal avenues for migrants. The American economy needs workers, too, he said.
His plans are two-fold and will be implemented this summer, he said.
An estimated 500,000 immigrants, mostly from Mexico, married to U.S. citizens will be eligible to apply for permanent residency through their spouses. Federal law requires undocumented immigrants to leave the country for up to 10 years and return legally.
The Biden administration will waive that stipulation for eligible applicants who have lived in the United States for at least a decade as of Monday. They must also pass background checks and meet other requirements. After three years as permanent residents, spouses can apply for US citizenship.
About 50,000 stepchildren of U.S. citizens can also apply for residency if they are under 21 years old.
“Currently my life is lived in two-year increments,” Quiroz said in a telephone interview, adding that becoming a permanent resident “will be a great relief and a great weight to lift off my shoulders.”
Biden also announced a simplified work visa program for immigrants enrolled in DACA and other undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.
Applicants must have a college degree and a job offer in a highly skilled field such as science. However, they must also leave the United States and re-enter legally, a rule that left some immigrants scared.
Melany, 21, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used because she fears Trump could be elected again, is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who recently earned a degree in computer science from Duke University. She said she was days away from applying for DACA when the program was frozen. She would like a work visa but she is afraid to leave the country where she has lived since she was 4 years old.
“Maybe wait a little bit and see what happens with other people who are part of the program,” he said.
Sullibet Ramírez Alvarado, a 27-year-old medical student at Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine, said she will apply for a visa. Mexico’s budding emergency doctor He is a DACA participant and has tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. He has lived in the United States since he was 5 years old and longs for greater stability.
“I don’t have that much mental capacity to focus on my immigration status every day,” he said in a phone interview as he rushed to work at a hospital. “The focus should be on patient care.”
That’s how Quiroz felt at the start of Biden’s term in 2021, when Democrats were struggling to determine whether they could create a path to American citizenship. He and his wife, Haleigh, a citizen, are nurses who worked on the front lines of the pandemic.
They fell in love in high school, bought a house in Texas and have two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl. She works at Houston Methodist West Hospital, one of the busiest in the city.
Quiroz was caring for a cancer patient in 2017 when the Trump administration tried to end DACA, calling it one of the worst days of his life.
He smiled Tuesday alongside Biden, still surprised that citizenship is finally within his reach.
“Thank you for what you did to help us get through the pandemic, friend,” the president said. “And for everything you’re doing for our country.”
Biden has spoken out against Trump’s border policies and his inflammatory language, which has drawn comparisons to Nazi rhetoric. Biden has directed particular ire at a Trump policy that separated thousands of migrant families at the southern border to deter illegal crossings, and promised that as president he would enact a “safe, orderly and humane” immigration system, more in line with American values. Americans.
But migrant crossings at the southern border rose to record numbers during Biden’s presidency, and voter outrage led to some of his lowest approval ratings. Opponents pounced, and Republican state governors like Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas scored political points by sending immigrants north, often to liberal enclaves.
Border apprehensions have averaged about 2 million per year since 2021, the highest levels ever recorded.
Biden administration officials have emphasized that any lasting change in immigration policy would have to come from Congress, but critics have said the president’s more permissive policies have encouraged people to make the trip to the border and attempt to cross. illegally.
Biden this month issued a proclamation aimed at reducing border crossings by restricting access to asylum if illegal crossings remained above an average of 2,500 per day.
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