Biden riles Trump campaign with legal immigrants proposal
UNITED States President Joe Biden is taking an expansive, election-year step to offer relief to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status in the US.
The move is aimed to balance his aggressive crackdown on the border earlier this month that enraged advocates and many Democratic lawmakers.
The White House announced yesterday that Mr Biden’s administration will, in the coming months, allow some spouses of US citizens without legal status to apply for permanent residency and, eventually, citizenship. The move could affect upwards of half a million immigrants, according to officials. To qualify, an immigrant must have lived in the US prior to Monday this week and be married to a US citizen.
If a qualifying immigrant’s application is approved, he or she would have three years to apply for a Green Card, and receive a temporary work permit and be shielded from deportation in the meantime.
Democrats, even after the president’s efforts to restrict asylum earlier this month, hope to sharply contrast Mr Biden with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his campaign pledge to deport millions, if he is reelected.
Mr Trump’s campaign yesterday accused the incumbent president of creating “another invitation for illegal immigration”.
Campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “Biden only cares about one thing – power – and that’s why he is giving mass amnesty and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegals who he knows will ultimately vote for him and the Open Border Democrat Party.”