The Biden administration filed new regulations Monday that will allow some immigrant spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to remain in the United States as they seek lawful permanent resident status.
The new policy, under a program dubbed “Keeping Families Together,” will allow those who are eligible to get parole that will allow them to stay with their families and work. The government started accepting applications Monday.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association said that those eligible are spouses of U.S. citizens who have lived in the United States for more than a decade or are stepchildren of a U.S. citizen.
They already qualify for a green card under U.S. immigration law, but face obstacles in the bureaucratic process that the new program will seek to curtail, the group said.
In a “Notice of Implementation” set to be published Tuesday in the Federal Register, the DHS said an estimated 765,000 noncitizens in the United States are married to U.S. citizens and lack lawful immigration status, and around two-thirds would be eligible for relief under the new initiative.
Without the program, the spouses would have to depart the United States and seek an immigrant visa at a U.S. embassy or consulate abroad, but they could face uncertainty about whether the visa would be granted and they would be able to return to the United States, DHS said.
Kelli Stump, president of the AILA, in a statement called the regulations a positive move toward updating the nation’s immigration system.
“As immigration attorneys, we see every day how outdated laws keep U.S. citizens’ families in long-term legal limbo, enduring an arduous bureaucratic process to gain lawful residency,” Stump said. “By taking this action, the administration is using its congressionally enacted authority to put families first and implement sensible solutions.”
Stump added the new initiative is “overdue,” but said more is needed and encouraged the U.S. government to “expand the scope of this program and identify other lawful pathways that will strengthen American families, our communities and our nation’s economy.”
As part of the process for submitting the updated Form I-131F, applicants must pay a $580 fee and undergo background checks verifying they qualify and do not pose a threat to national security or public safety.
“Granting parole in place, on a case-by-case basis, to eligible noncitizens under this process will achieve the significant public benefit of promoting the unity and stability of families, increasing the economic prosperity of American communities, strengthening diplomatic relationships with partner countries in the region, reducing strain on limited U.S. government resources, and furthering national security, public safety, and border security objectives,” the regulation states.
The Biden administration announced in June it would seek the new policy for noncitizen spouses, as well as a policy to speed work visas for college graduates, amid consternation from immigration advocates over new regulations that restricted eligibility for asylum from migrants.
The spouse issue appears to be an outlier from contentiousness of other immigration policy, with few to no objections to the change. A conservative legal group, America First Legal, did pledge legal action to counter the Biden policies, but a statement that day focused only on the college graduate policy.
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