Biden announces new policy shielding immigrants married to US citizens from deportation
Joe Biden’s administration has announced plans to open a citizenship pathway to undocumented spouses of Americans, in a move that could affect upwards of 500,000 people, according to officials.
The White House announced on Tuesday that the government will allow certain spouses of US citizens who do not have legal status to apply for permanent residency and eventually, citizenship, in the coming months.
To qualify, they must have lived in America for at least 10 years and be married to a US citizen – although there is no requirement on how long they have to have been spouses for.
Spouses eligible to apply for this scheme have been in the US for 23 years on average, according to The White House.
If an immigrant’s application is approved, they will have three years to apply for a green card, and receive a temporary work permit – all whilst being shielded from deportation.
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An estimated 50,000 children who are not citizens but have a parent who is married to one could also potentially qualify for the same process, senior officials said.
The announcement comes two weeks after President Biden unveiled a crackdown at the US border with Mexico that limits asylum processing once they reach 2,500 per day.
Migrants at the US-Mexico border. Pic: AP
The limit went into effect immediately, as current figures stand at around 4,000 per day.
The government faced fierce backlash over the crackdown from advocate groups and many Democratic politicians, with President Biden’s new initiative predicted to try and find some sort of middle ground and show that he supports a more humane immigration system.
At an event at the White House later today, the president is also expected to set out new regulations that allow beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme – set up by Barack Obama – and other young immigrants to qualify more easily for long-established work visas.
Key battleground in upcoming election
Immigration is a key issue in the upcoming presidential election.
Sky News’ chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay witnessed the plight of immigrants trying to make it to North America riding on a freight train nicknamed “La Bestia” (The Beast”) or sometimes the “Train of Death”.
At least 200 people attempted to clamber onto the train in the dead of night, but a short while into the journey Mexican immigration officers boarded the train alongside armed soldiers and national guard and worked their way through the railway cars trying to persuade people to get off.
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Sky News aboard ‘The Beast’
Despite the difficulties of the journeys – and the new brutal interventions by the Mexican authorities – the inexorable move north goes on, Ramsay said.
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Biden’s Republican rival in the upcoming election, Donald Trump, has previously said that he would seek to end automatic citizenship for children born in the US to immigrants living in the country illegally.
The former president also pledged to launch the largest deportation effort in US history, focusing on criminals but aiming to send millions back to their home countries.
In an interview with Time magazine, he said that he would also reinstate the Title 42 policy – first brought in during the COVID-19 pandemic – which allowed US border authorities to quickly expel migrants back to Mexico without the chance to claim asylum.
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called President Biden’s new programme “amnesty” in a statement and reiterated Trump’s deportation pledge, saying he would “restore the rule of law” if reelected.
Tune into Sky News’ special programme with Yalda Hakim on the migration crisis tonight at 9pm.
Fears of a US-EU trade war have been reignited after Europe refused to back down in the face of fresh threats from Donald Trump.
The word tariff has dominated much of the US president’s second term, and he has repeatedly and freely threatened countries with them.
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This included the so-called “liberation day” last month, where he unleashed tariffs on many of his trade partners.
On Friday, after a period of relative calm which has included striking a deal with the UK, he threatened to impose a 50% tariff on the EU after claiming trade talks with Brussels were “going nowhere”.
The US president has repeatedly taken issue with the EU, going as far as to claim it was created to rip the US off.
However, in the face of the latest hostile rhetoric from Mr Trump’s social media account, the European Commission – which oversees trade for the 27-country bloc – has refused to back down.
EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.
“We stand ready to defend our interests.”
Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday
Fellow EU leaders and ministers have also held the line after Mr Trump’s comments.
Polish deputy economy minister Michal Baranowski said the tariffs appeared to be a negotiating ploy, with Dutch deputy prime minister Dick Schoof said tariffs “can go up and down”.
French trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin said the latest threats did nothing to help trade talks.
He stressed “de-escalation” was one of the EU’s main aims but warned: “We are ready to respond.”
Mr Sefcovic spoke with US trade representative Jamieson Greer and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick after Mr Trump’s comments.
Mr Trump has previously backed down on a tit-for-tat trade war with China, which saw tariffs soar above 100%.
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Sticking points
Talks between the US and EU have stumbled.
In the past week, Washington sent a list of demands to Brussels – including adopting US food safety standards and removing national digital services taxes, people familiar with the talks told Reuters news agency.
In response, the EU reportedly offered a mutually beneficial deal that could include the bloc potentially buying more liquefied natural gas and soybeans from the US, as well as cooperation on issues such as steel overcapacity, which both sides blame on China.
Stocks tumble as Trump grumbles
Major stock indices tumbled after Mr Trump’s comments, which came as he also threatened to slap US tech giant Apple with a 25% tariff.
The president is adamant that he wants the company’s iPhones to be built in America.
The vast majority of its phones are made in China, and the company has also shifted some production to India.
Shares of Apple ended 3% lower and the dollar sank 1% versus the Japanese yen and the euro rose 0.8% against the dollar.
In the dozens of framed images and newspaper clippings covering the walls of his office in downtown New York City, Al Sharpton is pictured alongside presidents and leading protests.
He has spent decades campaigning and is perhaps the most famous civil rights activist in the US today.
Many of those clippings on the wall relate to one moment in May 2020 – the murder of George Floyd.
George Floyd was killed while under arrest in Minneapolis in May 2020
Speaking to Sky News ahead of the five-year anniversary of that moment, Mr Sharpton remembered the combination of “humiliation and deep anger” he felt seeing the footage of Mr Floyd’s death that swept the world.
“The more I watched, the more angry I felt,” he said.
Mr Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer.
Mr Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported he had made a purchase using counterfeit money.
Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, while he was handcuffed and lying face down in the street.
Chauvin pressed his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, as the victim repeatedly said ‘I can’t breathe’. Pic: AP
‘A seismic moment’
For Mr Sharpton, who has marched with countless other families, this felt different because it was “graphic and unnecessary”.
“What kind of person would hear somebody begging for their life and ignore them?” he said.
“I had no idea this would become a seismic moment,” he continued.
“I think people would accuse civil rights leaders, activists like me of being opportunistic, but we don’t know if one call from the next one is going to be big, all we know is we have to answer to the call.”
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Has US changed five years after George Floyd’s death?
Trump ‘pouring salt on the wounds’
Mr Floyd’s death took place during Donald Trump’s first term in the White House.
During Trump’s second term, his administration has moved to repeal federal oversight plans for the Minneapolis Police Department – a move originally supported by Joe Biden’s administration.
Mr Sharpton believes Mr Trump and the Department of Justice have purposely timed this for the 5th Anniversary of Mr Floyd’s Death.
“It’s pouring salt on the wounds of those that were killed, and those that fought,” he said.
“I think Donald Trump and his administration is actively trying to reverse and revoke changes and progress made with policing based on the movement we created after George Floyd’s death, worldwide.”
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Mr Sharpton still supports George Floyd’s family and will be with them this weekend in Houston, Texas, where many of them will mark the anniversary.
He said the legacy of Mr Floyd’s death is still being written.
Evoking the civil rights movement of the 1960s he said: “The challenge is we must turn those moments into permanent movements, it took nine years from 1955 to 1964 for Dr [Martin Luther] King in that movement to get a Civil Rights Act after Rosa Parks sat in the front of a bus in Montgomery.
“We’re five years out of George Floyd, we’ve got to change the laws.
“We can do it in under nine years, but we can’t do it if we take our eye off the prize.”
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