President Biden has hinted that more liberal moves on immigration could be coming in the weeks ahead, and reports suggest that, in response to left-wing pressure on the issue, he is considering a deportation shield for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants already in the U.S.
Last week, Biden announced an executive order to limit the ability of illegal immigrants to claim asylum at the southern border. While it was brushed off by Republicans as insufficient and has yet to have an impact on border numbers, it sparked liberal anger, drawing condemnation from some Democratic lawmakers and an immediate lawsuit threat from civil rights groups.
Announcing the executive order, Biden appeared to anticipate the criticism from the left and teased moves to make the immigration system "more just."
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"Today, I have spoken about what we need to do to secure the border. In the weeks ahead — and I mean the weeks ahead — I will speak to how we can make our immigration system more fair and more just," he said on Tuesday.
Multiple outlets have since reported that the White House is considering a "parole in place" move to apply for illegal immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens. Parole in place is already being used in one year increments for family members of U.S. military members and protects them from deportation and grants them a work permit. The New York Times reported that the program for spouses could include the ability for some spouses to gain a pathway to citizenship, but those details are still not clear.
"As we have said before, the Administration continues to explore a series of policy options, and we remain committed to taking action to address our broken immigration system," a White House spokesperson told Fox News in response to the reports.
Parole more broadly has been used by the Biden administration to admit over 1,500 a day via the ports of entry using the CBP One app, as well as 30,000 a month using parole processes for nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Parole in place has been rumored as a potential move by the administration for months and has been directly called for by immigration advocates. FWD.us, an immigration advocacy group, estimates that there are approximately 1.1 million spouses of U.S. citizens living in the U.S. illegally, and the group says it would add $16 billion to the economy if they were made U.S. citizens.
"Mr. Biden can rise to the moment by leveraging the parole power to fulfill his promise to keep families together," Andrea Flores, a vice president for immigration policy and campaigns said in a Times op-ed.
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The call itself comes after Biden has lobbied for years for a day one immigration bill that includes a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants as part of a broader immigration reform package. It has failed to get off the ground in Congress, where it has faced significant Republican opposition. A separate bipartisan bill unveiled in the Senate earlier this year has similarly gained administration support but has not gained enough support.
An additional parole move would likely face fierce resistance from immigration hawks, who have accused Biden of using parole authority illegally and of putting illegal immigrants ahead of U.S. citizens.
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) has called any such move an "abuse" of parole authority to give "amnesty" to illegal immigrants.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
"While these so-called mixed-status families may elicit sympathies, our immigration laws have a process for illegal alien spouses of U.S. citizens to follow to absolve their violations — a process the Biden Administration is ignoring to ease the burden on illegal aliens," AFPI’s Robert Law said last month.
"This parole scheme could also be a starting point to ‘parole in place’ even larger, less sympathetic classes of illegal aliens, which would frustrate efforts by a future America First administration to enforce U.S. immigration law and remove illegal aliens from the country," he said.
It is unclear what effect such a move could have on the upcoming election in November. Polling has shown Biden deeply underwater with voters on the issue of the crisis at the southern border, but his campaign may hope that a parole expansion will help him in key swing states like Arizona and Nevada.
