Mexican by birth and a resident of the United States since she was three, Guadalupe Gutiérrez, 21, got married last June in California, after two years of dating. The inherent excitement of being a newlywed was compounded two days later by a pleasant and unexpected surprise. The president of the United States, Joe Biden, announced the regularization of half a million undocumented migrants married to American citizens. Her husband is from California, and she, without legal resident status, met all the necessary conditions to benefit from the program. With the marriage license she had received a precious gift: the long-awaited papers that, after 18 years, would allow her to legally reside in what has been her country almost all her life. “We were very excited because without knowing it we entered the limit of those who could request it,” says Gutiérrez.
Unbeknownst to them, they had gotten their wedding date right. To qualify for the Keeping Families Together program, beneficiaries had to have gotten married before the day Biden introduced it, June 18. Under the program, legal status would be granted to migrants who, having entered the country illegally, were married to U.S. citizens and had been living in the United States for at least 10 years. This time, she was luckier than her previous attempt to regularize her status. The DACA program, which granted residency to migrants who arrived illegally as children, ended when her process was underway.
She wasted no time and on June 19, the first day that the application period opened, she submitted hers. This time, a judge’s suspension order cut short her luck. “Now I’m in the same situation. I applied and it’s on hold again,” she laments.
This refers to the decision of a federal judge in Texas, who on Monday night, a week after Guadalupe Gutiérrez had submitted her application, temporarily halted the program that would give her the legal status she so longs for. Behind the court order is the lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who, along with attorneys general from 15 other Republican-governed states, asked to block the program on the grounds that it was unconstitutional since it had not been authorized by Congress.
Gutiérrez has been suffering for 18 years from the consequences of having crossed the border illegally when she was taken from her native Mexico at the age of three. She studies business and cosmetology, but her status as an illegal resident prevents her from accessing financial aid for her education. “I don’t have the same opportunities as other people who were born here because I can’t qualify for funding for my studies,” she explains. “With my papers in order, I would also have opportunities to find work and help my family,” she adds.
“I felt sad. It’s the same situation I’ve already been through. It’s very unfair because the people who live here without documents help the country financially. They work, pay taxes, live a quiet life and they think we come here to cause problems,” she complains.
Those who oppose immigration reform think otherwise. In the lawsuit that led to the suspension, Attorney General Paxton justified the program as having an “obvious political interest” and that regularizing undocumented immigrants “will encourage illegal immigration and irreparably harm the plaintiff states.”
President Biden criticized the judge’s order and warned that his administration will continue to fight to have it reversed. “Nothing I did changed the requirements that people must meet to adjust their status under immigration law. All I did was make it possible for these long-term residents to file paperwork here, along with their families.”
Before the reform, if Gutiérrez wanted to obtain the residency permit that she is entitled to because she married a US citizen, she had to leave the country, wait 10 years and apply for it through a consulate. An unattractive prospect for someone who has just married and whose home has always been in the United States.
The same day the judge issued his order, Gutiérrez had received notification for the next step in the process, the taking of fingerprints. Now he has doubts. He doesn’t know whether to go or not, but his lawyer from Chirla (Coalition for Human Rights of Immigrants) advises him to go because “if the process is reactivated, they would already have my information,” he says.
Chirla has joined other organizations that defend migrants in asking that the voices of those affected be heard in the trial. “We do not understand why a united family becomes a threat to Texas and other states. It is important for the community to know that the pause in granting these permits does not stop the process and applications can still be submitted. The community is urged to seek assistance from trusted organizations and experts on the subject,” advises Angelica Salas, executive director of Chirla.
“Everything is confusing and complicated,” admits Kali Pliego. A 43-year-old Minnesota native, Pliego has been married to a Mexican man for 17 years and, like Guadalupe Gutierrez, she filed the application with her husband last week to regularize his status. She has also received the notice to have her fingerprints taken and does not know what to expect. Days after filing the application, Pliego is still waiting for her to be released. parole in placePliego gave an interview to EL PAÍS in which she expressed hope for the initiative.
Now, two and a half months later, she understands why her husband is distrustful. “He knows that there is an anti-immigrant sentiment in part of society in this country. He has to measure his hopes by calculating that there are people who are against him,” she says.
Regularizing her husband’s status would mean, among many other advantages, that he could access a better job than the one he currently has. “Now he has to put up with things because he doesn’t feel he has the right to complain if someone treats him badly. Our goal is for him to have the option to choose, because now he doesn’t have that freedom,” she explains. In addition, her son could visit his family in Mexico, whom he doesn’t know because he doesn’t want to travel without his father.
Pliego explains the judge’s decision to suspend the program as “pure politics,” because he does not believe there is anything illegal in it. “The fact that he stopped it before hearing the arguments from each side is an example of his political ideology,” he says.
Despite their disappointment, the couple is not afraid that the suspension will be permanent, because it would not change the life they have led for the past 17 years. “It would affect us morally, but not in our daily lives,” she says. What they are afraid of is that the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, will be re-elected. “My biggest fear is that Trump wins, because then they will knock on my door to get my husband out of the country,” she admits. She recalls that the anxiety they suffered during the four years that Trump was president was “horrible.”
She says she knows many people who were waiting to know the result of the elections to apply for regularisation, because they believe that their future depends on who will be the next occupant of the White House. And she is indignant at those responsible for the halting of regularisation. “It is a disgrace. It makes me very sad that there are people in my country who show their hatred towards my family in this way,” she protests.
