Our Bureau
Washington, DC
President Joe Biden has announced a significant immigration program that will provide legal status and a streamlined path to U.S. residency and citizenship for approximately 500,000 unauthorized immigrants who are married to American citizens. The program aims to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants married to US citizens and living in the United States for at least 10 years.
President Biden has announced that the Department of Homeland Security will take action to ensure that U.S. citizens with noncitizen spouses and children can keep their families together. This action will protect approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen, as per a White House statement.
In his address to the nation from the East Room of the White House on Tuesday, Biden also outlined a plan to ease the process for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiaries (and potentially other Dreamers) to access high-skilled employment visas.
This announcement will allow individuals, including DACA recipients and other Dreamers, who have earned a degree at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education in the United States, and who have received an offer of employment from a U.S. employer in a field related to their degree, to receive work visas more quickly.
“It’s the right thing to do. I want those who’ve been educated at US colleges and universities to put their skills and knowledge to work here in America. I want to keep building the strongest economy in the world with the best workforce in the world. We’ve already created 15 million new jobs, a record,” said Biden.
