The Biden administration is making plans to announce one of the largest immigration relief programs in recent history, developing a policy that would offer legal status to hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the country without proper documents, four people familiar with the plans told CBS News.
A program being developed by White House officials would offer work permits and deportation protections to unauthorized immigrants married to U.S. citizens, as long as they have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years, the sources said, requesting anonymity to talk about internal government plans.
The proposal, known as “Parole in Place,” would also open up a pathway to permanent legal status and U.S. citizenship for some beneficiaries by removing an obstacle in U.S. law that prevents those who entered the U.S. illegally from obtaining green cards without leaving the country.
Another plan being prepared by the Biden administration would streamline the process for so-called DREAMers and other undocumented immigrants to request waivers that would make it easier for them to obtain temporary visas, such as H-1B visas for high-skilled workers, the sources said.
The measures, the sources added, could be announced as early as Tuesday, but a plan has not been finalized by the administration. White House officials are preparing to host an event Tuesday to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields roughly 530,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation.
Some Democratic lawmakers have already been invited to Tuesday’s immigration event at the White House, three congressional officials told CBS News, requesting anonymity to share private invitations.
A White House official said no final decisions had been made. White House spokesperson Angelo Fernandez Hernandez previously said the administration is “committed to taking action to address our broken immigration system.”
The “Parole in Place” plan would be the largest immigration program for unauthorized immigrants since DACA, a policy that former President Barack Obama announced in 2012 as a “stopgap” measure to protect DREAMers in light of congressional inaction on immigration.
The policy would benefit a subset of the estimated 1.1 million unauthorized immigrants with American citizen spouses, as long as they meet the residency requirement and other rules. Overall, there are approximately 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. unlawfully, according to the most recent government estimat