Miguel Aleman, a 39-year-old who came to the U.S. from Mexico at the age of 4, is one of hundreds of thousands of immigrants hoping to get a green card and become naturalized U.S. citizens through a new program introduced by the Joe Biden administration. in application.
The program is one of the Democratic president’s major initiatives to provide legal protection to immigrants who entered the country illegally, married US citizens and have lived in the US for decades. Republicans have made illegal immigration a key campaign issue ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Without the program Aleman, who has two children with his American wife and works as an Uber driver, would have to settle in Mexico, possibly for a decade or more, before he would be allowed to return to the U.S. legally.
“My whole family is here,” said Aleman, one of dozens of immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador and the Philippines who gathered Friday to learn about the program from the Immigrant Human Rights Coalition at Los Angeles.
The Keeping Families Together program was announced in June and covers approximately 500,000 spouses of US citizens who have lived in the US for at least 10 years as of June 17. About 50,000 children under the age of 21 can benefit from the same program, as long as one parent is a US citizen.
Biden unveiled the program before he withdrew from the presidential race in July. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to formally receive the Democratic nomination this week, has been sharply criticized by her Republican rival in the election, Donald Trump, for the “record number” of immigrants who have crossed the border since she took office. Biden in 2021. Harris, for her part, points out that the border security bill did not pass the Senate because of Trump’s objections. At campaign rallies in Arizona and Nevada this month, Harris called for “a path to naturalization” for immigrants who have “earned” that right.
Trump spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt said in June that the naturalization program provides “mass amnesty” and reiterated the Republican’s pledge to deport massive numbers of undocumented immigrants if re-elected.
The Keeping Families Together program allows immigrant spouses to apply for permanent residency without leaving the US. Otherwise, they would have to leave the country for many years before being allowed to return. A spouse who gets a “green card” can then apply to become a naturalized US citizen in three years.
Republicans are likely to go to court challenging the program’s legality.
The initiative could lead to the naturalization of some of the immigrants who joined Barack Obama’s DACA program in 2012. That program provided work permits to immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as minors. Trump attempted to end DACA during his presidency (2017-21) but was blocked by the Supreme Court.
Aleman is on DACA but hopes to also obtain legal US resident status through the Keeping Families Together program. “I want to continue to contribute to this country,” he said.
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