Biden launches citizenship program for immigrant spouses of US citizens

[August 19, 2024]  By Jorge Garcia and Ted Hesson

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Miguel Aleman, a 39-year-old who was brought to the United States from Mexico at age 4, is among hundreds of thousands of immigrants hoping to find a path to citizenship through a new Biden administration program set to launch on Monday.

The program is one of the biggest moves by Democratic President Joe Biden to provide legal status to long-term U.S. residents who entered illegally. It comes months before the Nov. 5 election, where Republicans have made illegal immigration a central focus.

Without the program, Aleman, who has two young children with his U.S.-citizen wife and works as an Uber driver, would have to relocate to Mexico - possibly for a decade or longer - before being allowed to return legally.

"My whole family is here," said Aleman, one of dozens of immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador and the Philippines who gathered at a Friday information session on the program organized by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

Keeping Families Together, announced in June, will be open to an estimated 500,000 spouses who have lived in the United States for at least 10 years as of June 17, Biden administration officials have said. Some 50,000 children under age 21 with a U.S.-citizen parent also will be eligible.

Biden unveiled the legalization program before dropping out of the presidential race against Republican Donald Trump, an immigration hardliner, in July. Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic candidate earlier this month and is scheduled to formally accept the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Thursday.

Trump has criticized Harris for record numbers of migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since she and Biden took office in 2021. Harris has countered by highlighting her own enforcement record and Trump's opposition to a bipartisan border security bill that failed to advance in the U.S. Senate earlier this year.

U.S. President Joe Biden gestures before boarding Air Force One at Hagerstown Regional Airport in Hagerstown, Maryland, U.S. August 18, 2024. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

At campaign events in Arizona and Nevada this month, Harris called for "an earned pathway to citizenship" for immigrants in the United States illegally.

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt in June labeled the citizenship program a "mass amnesty" and reiterated Trump's pledge to deport historic numbers of immigrants in the country illegally if reelected.

Keeping Families Together allows qualifying spouses to apply for permanent residence without departing the United States when they would otherwise need to leave for years before being permitted to return. A spouse who obtains permanent residence, also known as a green card, can apply for citizenship in three years.

The program is likely to face Republican-led legal challenges.

The initiative could offer a path to citizenship for some people enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which offers deportation relief and work permits to immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.

DACA was launched in 2012 by President Barack Obama while Biden was vice president. Trump tried to end the DACA program during his 2017-2021 presidency but was blocked by the Supreme Court. Texas and other states with Republican attorneys general have continued to challenge DACA's legality.

Aleman is enrolled in DACA but hopes to receive permanent status through Keeping Families Together.

"I want to keep contributing to this country," he said.

(Reporting by Jorge Garcia in Los Angeles and Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Mark Porter)

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