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.”
“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.
