The administration of US President Joe Biden plans to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the country without the necessary documents, CBS TV reported, citing its sources. “The program being developed by White House officials would provide work permits and protection from deportation to illegal immigrants married to US citizens, provided they have lived in the country for at least 10 years" it says in the material.
They will be able to obtain visas for highly skilled workers, permanent residence permits and US citizenship. At the same time, US law already prohibits the issuance of visas without first leaving the country.
These measures could be announced as early as Tuesday, June 18, but this plan has not yet been approved and a final decision has not been made.
It is noted that the program could provoke a backlash from Republican congressmen who criticize Biden's immigration policy and have long called for it to be tightened. The article explains that according to the latest data, there are about 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.
In early June, Biden signed an executive order temporarily barring asylum to migrants illegally crossing the country's southern border. These restrictions will be in effect when the flow of migrants exceeds capacity at the US-Mexico border.
In February, Fox News reported that during the Biden administration, 7.2 million illegal immigrants entered the United States, which exceeded the population of each of the 36 possible states. The authors of the article estimate that if all the illegal immigrants who entered the country under the current president were added together, they could create a city that would be the second largest in the entire country after New York.