The Mexican government expressed its support for President Joe Biden's executive action that offers a path to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants married to U.S. citizens.
The López Obrador government highlighted that the measures will facilitate the process of applying for residency in the country for foreign spouses of U.S. citizens and will more efficiently integrate young beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program into the economy.
"Mexico has repeatedly stated that one of its top priorities in the bilateral relationship is the protection and regularization of our nationals in the United States," says a document released by the country's foreign ministry.
"In this regard, we recognize the measures announced as positive, with the certainty that strengthening our relationship under a policy of good neighborliness, respecting the sovereignty of our peoples and promoting economic cooperation is the right way to ensure safe, orderly, regular and humane migration," the statement adds.
Approximately 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens and 50,000 children, the vast majority of whom are Mexican or Mexican-American, could benefit from this process and avoid family separation.
Biden's new executive action, issued on Tuesday, allows those who have lived in the United States for at least ten years to apply for permanent residency without leaving the country, removing a significant obstacle that has prevented them from seeking legal status.
Advocates and lawmakers consider it to be one of the most significant presidential actions to protect immigrants in more than a decade.
"For those who have been in the country continuously for at least 10 years and are married (to a U.S. citizen), this will allow people to have a pathway; it will allow folks to get protection," Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, said Monday.
"For a lot of folks this means that instead of going to another country and waiting 10 years away from their families, they could do parole in place. We think this is pretty common sense."
This move follows a recent policy issued by Biden aimed at stemming the flow of migrants entering the country through the southern border, which essentially bars migrants from claiming asylum if arrivals at the U.S. southern border reach an average of 2,500 per day over a seven-day period.
In contrast, Mexico has expressed concern about the measure, which is considered one of the toughest immigration policies by a Democratic president in recent history. AMLO is seeking an agreement that if the U.S. decides to deport migrants at the border, it will do so directly to their country of origin.
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