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.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
Read more from Sky News:
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
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