President Biden is considering issuing green cards to up to 4,000 illegal immigrants who would be subject to deportation unless they have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years and have not been convicted of a “serious crime.” .
The Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Review announced a proposal to make thousands of immigrants lawful permanent residents in September 2023. Daily Mail reported.
To qualify for this lofty position, immigrants must argue that they are of “good moral character” and that they would “suffer unusual and highly unusual hardship” if deported.
“You will have to wait your turn until an immigration judge approves your application,” the proposal says. “This could take years.”
The newspaper has contacted the Office of Immigration Review for comment.
During his first 100 days in office, Biden took several executive actions to reverse former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, including the Remain in Mexico program, which were later upheld by a federal court ruling. It was done.
Since then, the number of immigrants entering the U.S. illegally has set records every year, with a total of 7.4 million people apprehended at the southern border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
Border officials have also arrested 270 people whose names are on U.S. terrorist watch lists in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, and 50 more in fiscal 2024 so far.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed earlier this year that more than 85% of immigrants who enter the United States have since been released into the country, and that there are also 1.8 million “fugitives” who have completely evaded arrest.
Biden’s expansion of humanitarian parole also means more than 320,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela are also flying into the United States or entering the country directly.
The parole program gained national attention last month after a Venezuelan national who entered the United States illegally in 2022 was charged with the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
Biden brought up her name in his State of the Union address and called her alleged killer, Jose Ybarra, an “illegal alien,” but later apologized and said he should have used the word “illegal alien.” did.
Last week, a group of migrants breached a border fence near El Paso, Texas, and mowed down Texas National Guard soldiers who had entered the country during a “spring surge.”
Congressional Republicans have accused the Biden administration of abandoning Trump-era immigration policies and loosening rules for detaining and removing most immigrants.
During a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in January, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said a local sheriff told Republican lawmakers that the Biden administration would dismantle 100 years of progress in the U.S. Border Patrol. “It took less than six months,” he said. I had achieved it. ”
“Remember, it was on his first day in office that President Biden halted construction of the southern border wall and ended the Remain in Mexico policy.” Said At a press conference.
“If the Biden administration just reinstated the Remain in Mexico policy, it would probably be able to stem the flow by more than 70%, but the Biden administration is refusing to do that.”
The following month, House Republicans impeached Mayorkas for failing to enforce federal immigration laws and lying to Congress that the U.S. border was “secure.”
Former President Barack Obama offered similar green card benefits to Biden through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which exempts thousands of people brought to the United States illegally as children from deportation.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the attorney general is prohibited from canceling the deportations of more than 4,000 illegal aliens in a fiscal year. December 2017 Notes From the Immigration Review Office.
