 "How Joe Biden’s new immigration policy will benefit Indians in the US")
There is a reason to cheer for immigrant families in the United States. President Joe Biden has unveiled a new policy that would protect undocumented spouses of US citizens from deportation. The Democrat has also said he would make it easier for young immigrants to get work visas.
His one of the plans aims to provide legal status to immigrant spouses and streamline the path of potential permanent residency for them. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants are reported to be eligible under this new policy.
Let’s take a closer look.
Biden launches new immigration policy
US president Biden’s election-year policy entails potential citizenship for immigrants without legal status in America.
The immigrants who have lived in the US for 10 years and have been married to American citizens as of 17 June 2024 will qualify for Biden’s new policy.
Once their application is approved, the undocumented spouse will have three years to apply for permanent residency (green card) and will be eligible for a three-year work permit.
They will be protected from deportation during this time, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
According to the White House, about 500,000 spouses will be eligible. As many as 50,000 stepchildren of US citizens will also benefit from the move.
Today, I signed an executive order with new actions to keep families together.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 18, 2024
These new measures will clarify and speed up work visas to help people, including Dreamers, who have graduated from American colleges and universities land jobs in high-demand, high-skill professions…
Impact Shorts
More ShortsBiden said at an event at the White House on Tuesday (18 June) that the plan would make the US immigration system less “unfair” and “unjust” for the benefit of immigrants, married couples and all Americans, reported BBC.
“The action I’m announcing today will go into effect later this summer,” he added.
“The steps I’m taking today are overwhelmingly supported by the American people, despite what the other team says,” he said, referring to Republicans.
According to the White House, the spouses to benefit from the programme have been in the US for 23 years. They will have to meet certain requirements such as no criminal history and not being a threat to national security to be eligible.
Benefits of the move
The new policy will allow immigrants who entered the US without a visa to be “paroled in place”.
Currently, the parole-in-place programme allows undocumented family members of US military personnel and veterans to stay in America legally. The immigrant spouses are protected from deportation and are authorised to work in the country.
Parole in place means immigrant spouses will not have to leave the US for up to 10 years while they wait for their green card. These non-citizens can now have their applications processed within the US without being separated from their loved ones.
The legal right to work will help these spouses to get a job suitable to their education and skills. As per The Conversation piece, the move could enhance an immigrant’s wage anywhere from an estimated 14 per cent to 40 per cent more than their current salary.
Non-citizen children of immigrants married to US citizens could also be considered for parole in place “if they are physically present in the United States without admission or parole and have a qualifying stepchild relationship to a US citizen,” according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
About 1.1 million (11 lakh) immigrants living in the US illegally are married to US citizens, as per advocacy group FWD.us. However, the new policy does not cover most of them as they were in the US for less than 10 years.
Alex Cuic, an immigration lawyer and professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told BBC that the plan would affect a “narrow group” but is a “start” for a segment of the immigration population who usually face challenges while obtaining legal status.
He said by extending parole in place for them, officials “kill off the need to separate families” when the immigrant spouse has to leave the US to apply for lawful permanent residence.
How will it affect Indians in the US?
The new policy will help Indian immigrants married to a US citizen and have lived in the country for 10 years. It will alleviate the deportation concerns in those Indian-American households.
According to Pew Research Center’s 2021 estimates, Indians account for the third-largest group of undocumented immigrants in the US.
As The Conversation piece noted, Biden’s action will help “yield economic benefits for the communities where mixed-citizenship families live.”
Policy for ‘Dreamers’
Biden has also announced a policy that will advantage migrants who came to the US as children, known as Dreamers.
As per a New York Times (NYT) report, the move will be applicable to beneficiaries of the Obama-era programme known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, who can now swift obtain employer-sponsored work visas.
They can also apply through their employers for green cards eventually.
This initiative would protect the legal status of young immigrants even if DACA is scrapped in the future.
Meanwhile, the announcement has sparked disgruntlement among some immigrant populations in the US as there is nothing to bring relief for H1B visa workers.
Many of the high-skilled foreign workers in the US are H1-B visa holders, which allows them to live and work in the country for a maximum of six years. During this period, they have to find an employer who will file an employment-based green card application on their behalf. But the green card process is “infamously complex”, as per The Quint.
The limit of green card allotment annually depends on the country of birth of an immigrant, not their nationality. As per the law, any country is eligible for up to 7 per cent of green cards per year. This cap adversely affects skilled workers from large population countries such as China and India.
Taking to X, a user named Anuj said that the recent changes announced by the US’ Department of Homeland Security “doesn’t have anything for legal skilled workers stuck in never ending backlog”. He claimed this would further make things “worse” for them.
With inputs from agencies
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