The Biden-Harris administration launched what critics call an amnesty program for illegal immigrants during the week of the Democratic National Convention.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is calling this “keeping families together,” and it would make an estimated 500,000 foreign spouses of U.S. citizens and another 50,000 foreign stepchildren eligible for parole.
The agency states that “aliens who are in the United States without admissibility or parole may be considered for parole under this procedure. Admissibility means having a green card, visa, or other legal right to be in the United States.”
“This is a massive amnesty that Congress never authorized,” Andrew Arthur, a legal and policy fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Fox News Digital.
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Migrants who entered the United States from Mexico via an abandoned railroad track are processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Jacumba Hot Springs, San Diego, California, on June 28, 2024. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
“Under a Harris-Waltz administration, all illegal immigrants could end up being subject to this process,” Arthur, the former immigration judge, added. “It would put a tough challenge on Republicans to then reverse it, but as we’ve seen with DACA, executive amnesties are difficult to reverse.”
DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is an executive order enacted by the administration of President Barack Obama in 2012 that provides legal status to the children of undocumented immigrants.
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), under the new “Keeping Families Together” program, spouses must have been in the U.S. for 10 years “without admissibility or parole,” have “no disqualifying criminal convictions, and not be considered a threat to public safety, national security, or border security,” and must undergo background checks.
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Vice President Kamala Harris and President Biden appeared together hours after reports emerged that Harris was seeking to “distance herself” from Biden’s policies. (Getty Images)
Foreign stepchildren of U.S. citizens must have been under 21 since last June when the executive order was first announced, their foreign parent must have been married to a U.S. citizen before June, and they must have no disqualifying criminal record.
But the criminal history portion of the policy comes with a caveat: USCIS added that applicants with criminal histories may still qualify if they “show positive factors that can be taken into account to overcome the presumption and that justify the exercise of favorable discretion.”
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Additionally, illegal immigrants facing deportation proceedings may also be eligible for parole under this process, according to the USCIS website.
“If a final removal order has not been served in your case, you have a non-disqualifying criminal history, or there is other adverse information, you may submit additional documentation demonstrating that parole is justified based on significant public interest or urgent humanitarian reasons and merits a favorable exercise of discretion,” USCIS said.
Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.
