The Biden administration is reportedly mulling over a plan that would give legal status to hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the country unlawfully and married to American citizens.
Officials within the White House and Department of Homeland Security(DHS) have been discussing how to give new deportation relief or work permits to illegal aliens who have been living for a long time in the United States, and they have honed in on one particular demographic: mixed status families, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
These mixed status families typically consist of one illegal alien parent with a spouse and children who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.
The strategy most favored by the administration on how to make this happen is to use an immigration tool known as “parole in place,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
Parole in place is a program that already exists and used on a smaller scale to allow the spouses of military veterans to remain in the country. The program, granted on a case-by-case basis by an immigration officer, generally allows a foreign national who entered the U.S. illegally to stay for a limited period of time. (RELATED: Man Arrested In Car Crash That Killed Democratic Staffer Entered US Illegally, ICE Confirms)
US Border Patrol agents process migrants near the US-Mexico border fence in Campo, California, on April 3, 2024. (Photo by David SWANSON / AFP) (Photo by DAVID SWANSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Granting these illegal alien spouses parole in place would make many of them eligible for work permits and could erase much government red tape in their green card applications, which would clear a pathway to citizenship.
US President Joe Biden listens to Jason Owens (2nd L), Chief of US Border Patrol, as he visits the US-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, on February 29, 2024. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
There are well over 10 million illegal aliens estimated to be living in the U.S. currently. Roughly 1 million illegal aliens are married to a U.S. citizen, according to an estimation by FWD.us, an immigration advocacy group. However, not all illegal aliens married to a U.S. citizen would necessarily be eligible. Advocates told The Wall Street Journal that fewer than 700,000 of them would qualify.
Much like young undocumented aliens known as “Dreamers,” Biden administration officials reportedly believe this demographic makes for a sympathetic audience, even during a time when many Americans are growing more hawkish about the southern border.
The Biden White House has been forced to address an uptick in illegal border crossings during its tenure, with over 2 million migrant encounters at the southern and northern borders in fiscal year 2023 and another 1 million in the first five months of fiscal year 2024, according to the latest Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. The crisis has pushed the issue to the forefront of concerns for voters in 2024.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO – FEBRUARY 01: Seen from an aerial view, immigrants walk along the U.S.-Mexico border wall after crossing the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas on February 01, 2024 from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
News of the White House plan has already generated pushback from immigration hardliners.
“Proposals like this show just how lawless the Biden administration really is. The Immigration and Nationality Act very clearly states that people who enter the country illegally are not eligible for employment authorization or permanent resident status,” Matt O’Brien, director of investigations at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, said in a statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Neither marriage to a US citizen, nor being a parent to a US citizen child, entitles anyone to an exemption from the INA. And any changes to that legal reality would require Congress to pass new statutes,” O’Brien continued, adding that this is “mass amnesty without Congressional authorization.”
The DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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