Biden moves to protect undocumented spouses, children from deportation in latest immigration push
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Weeks after implementing new rules to limit the flow of asylum seekers across the southern border, Joe Biden today is set to announce a policy that will allow some undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to reside permanently in the country. The president’s move comes as polls show immigration is one of the top issues on voters’ minds ahead of the November election, and after he faced a backlash to the tighter asylum rules from advocates who argued they were no different from the hardline policies implemented under Donald Trump.
Biden’s re-election campaign argues the new rules are a marked contrast from the hardline policies Trump championed as president, when his administration separated migrant families at the US-Mexico border. “Joe Biden Is Fighting To Keep Families Together. Donald Trump Tears Families Apart,” read a press release from the campaign sent to reporters this morning. Biden is set to discuss immigration at a White House event scheduled for 2.45pm ET that will celebrate the 12th anniversary of Daca, a program that shields undocumented people brought to the US as children from deportation.
Here’s what else is going on today:
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Senate Democrats will attempt to pass legislation to ban “bump stocks”, the firearm modification that allows rapid fire, and which the supreme court’s conservatives allowed to remain on the market last week. The GOP is expected to block the measure.
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Trump will hold a rally at 4pm in Racine, Wisconsin, a state he probably must win to capture the White House in November.
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Oklahoma and Virginia are holding primaries today. In the latter state, rightwing congressman Bob Good is fighting for his seat against John McGuire, a challenger who received Trump’s endorsement in retaliation for Good backing Ron DeSantis in the GOP’s presidential primary.
Key events
Joe Biden’s move to protect some undocumented spouses and children of US citizens from deportation comes weeks after he announced measures intended to curb the flow of asylum seekers into the country. That policy split Democrats, with some saying it was a necessary response to the surge in border crossers seen since he took office, and others calling it a draconian response to a global humanitarian crisis. Over the weekend, the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino took a closer look at the divide:
Democratic mayors, governors and members of Congress from the south-west to the north-east stood beside Joe Biden at the White House, when he unveiled an executive order temporarily sealing the US-Mexico border to most asylum seekers – the most restrictive immigration policy of his presidency.
“We must face a simple truth,” the US president said. “To protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now.”
Those around him agreed, applauding the directive as a welcome, if belated, step. Yet for many Democrats not in attendance, the moment marked an astonishing retreat from just four years ago, when the president campaigned on dismantling the incendiary immigration policies of Donald Trump.
Most Democrats accept that Biden had to do something to address an issue that has become one of his biggest political vulnerabilities. But the party, once united in furious opposition to Trump’s asylum clampdown, now finds itself divided over his course of action, split on both the substance of the policy and the wisdom of its politics.
Here’s more about the Biden administration’s new policy allowing undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to obtain residency, from the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino:
Joe Biden was set to announce a new action opening a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented spouses and children of US citizens, a sweeping initiative that could provide relief to hundreds of thousands of “mixed-status” families in the country, according to senior administration officials.
Biden is expected to announce the new actions at a White House event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or Daca, which presently shields from deportation nearly 530,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children.
“These eligible non-citizens who have lived here for 10 years or more have deep family and community ties in the United States,” a senior administration official told reporters, previewing the plan. “Many of these families include US citizen children, yet they live in fear and face deep uncertainty about their future.”
Under the policy, undocumented immigrants who have resided in the US for 10 or more years, as of 17 June, and are legally married to a US citizen will be newly eligible to pursue legal status while living and working in the US.
Biden campaign contrasts new rules on undocumented spouses, children with Trump policies
In a statement, Joe Biden’s re-election campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez contrasted the president’s new rule allowing undocumented spouses and children to stay in the country with the hardline immigration policies Donald Trump implemented as president, and has vowed to bring back if returned to the White House.
“Families belong together – it’s that simple. It’s why President Biden’s actions today are so important, and it’s also a powerful stark reminder of Donald Trump’s unforgivable legacy of ripping crying children away from their parents when he put in place his family separation policy,” Chavez Rodriguez said.
Here’s more:
In fact, the somber reality is that if Trump gets the chance, he will go even further: reimplementing family separation, using the National Guard to round up and deport immigrants, and standing up massive detention camps. Not because it will fix our immigration system, but because Trump thinks it’s good politics to pick on vulnerable immigrants.
Joe Biden will not let that happen.
Biden moves to protect undocumented spouses, children from deportation in latest immigration push
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Weeks after implementing new rules to limit the flow of asylum seekers across the southern border, Joe Biden today is set to announce a policy that will allow some undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to reside permanently in the country. The president’s move comes as polls show immigration is one of the top issues on voters’ minds ahead of the November election, and after he faced a backlash to the tighter asylum rules from advocates who argued they were no different from the hardline policies implemented under Donald Trump.
Biden’s re-election campaign argues the new rules are a marked contrast from the hardline policies Trump championed as president, when his administration separated migrant families at the US-Mexico border. “Joe Biden Is Fighting To Keep Families Together. Donald Trump Tears Families Apart,” read a press release from the campaign sent to reporters this morning. Biden is set to discuss immigration at a White House event scheduled for 2.45pm ET that will celebrate the 12th anniversary of Daca, a program that shields undocumented people brought to the US as children from deportation.
Here’s what else is going on today:
-
Senate Democrats will attempt to pass legislation to ban “bump stocks”, the firearm modification that allows rapid fire, and which the supreme court’s conservatives allowed to remain on the market last week. The GOP is expected to block the measure.
-
Trump will hold a rally at 4pm in Racine, Wisconsin, a state he probably must win to capture the White House in November.
-
Oklahoma and Virginia are holding primaries today. In the latter state, rightwing congressman Bob Good is fighting for his seat against John McGuire, a challenger who received Trump’s endorsement in retaliation for Good backing Ron DeSantis in the GOP’s presidential primary.