Biden's Illegal Amnesty
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Biden Administration Announces Executive Amnesty for over Half a Million Illegal Aliens
On the heels of last week's proclamation by President Biden in an attempt to convince voters that he was finally taking the border crisis seriously while doing nothing to effectively stem illegal border crossings, the president on Tuesday announced an amnesty for over half a million illegal aliens.
Our fact sheet on last week's "border security" proclamation.
The amnesty announced this week provides relief for illegal alien spouses of U.S. citizens by allowing them to adjust their status to become legal permanent residents (LPRs), which will then allow them to eventually receive U.S. citizenship. It is restricted to individuals who claim to have been present in the United States for at least ten years. The Biden Administration is doing this by using what is known as "parole in place" (PIP). PIP was snuck into the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act and was limited to illegal aliens who were married to members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their children. The administration has estimated that the number of illegal aliens who will receive amnesty under this new program is 550,000.
Broadening its scope beyond what is authorized by Congress will bring legal challenges, and some legal commentators have predicted that this move by President Biden will likely be enjoined in federal court and ultimately found to be illegal – or it will be undone if former President Trump were to win the 2024 election. This abuse of parole authority continues a practice that has now allowed over two million inadmissible aliens to be released into the United States. President Biden's parole program for Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan nationals is currently under review in the Fifth District federal court.
Regardless of how this plays out in court, this latest move will make it more difficult for future administrations to remove individuals from the United States who have been granted an affirmative benefit from the federal government by an executive who claims to have the legal authority to do so. It will also have a negative effect on legal immigrants who will have to wait longer for their cases to be adjudicated by USCIS, including spouses of U.S. citizens who are waiting to enter the country legally.
Widespread fraud is also a major concern, given the difficulty of ascertaining and verifying evidence that individuals who chose to violate immigration law are being truthful in their applications, and given the poor track record of the Biden Administration when vetting aliens at the border. DHS Secretary Mayorkas stated that his instructions for adjudicating applications for green cards when he headed USCIS under President Obama was "get to yes." Now that he's running the entire DHS, he's applied that same philosophy to admitting aliens into the United States, whether or not they are admissible under U.S. law.
Biden's Other Amnesty
A move this week that received much less media coverage was the announcement that the Biden Administration would make it easier for DACA recipients to receive what's known as a D-3 waiver, which would allow them to reenter the United States on an employment visa while waiving their past unlawful presence, paving the way for these individuals to adjust to legal status and eventually become LPRs. It is another administrative amnesty and one that violates both the spirit and letter of existing law. This is a further affront to the rule of law as the DACA program has been declared illegal by a federal judge.
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