Biden admin considers granting legal status to illegal immigrant spouses of Americans: report

Biden's Department of Homeland Security (DHS), headed by Alejandro Mayorkas, has reportedly been considering a plan to give legal status to any immigrants that are married to a US citizen and in the country illegally.   

White House officials as well as some in the DHS have been considering how to avoid deportation of those who have been living in the US for a long time, per a report from the Wall Street Journal.    

The proposal has gained steam in the Biden White House and at DHS, with policy makers looking over a range of possibilities to give work permits to those who are in the country illegally, per the outlet's reporting.    

There are about 1.1 million illegal immigrants that are married to US citizens in the country. Non-citizens married to Americans can usually obtain a green card when they are wedded, however, many of those who entered the country illegally can be denied the immigration status because they had crossed the border illegally and were already guilty of a crime.   

According to the WSJ, the policy most favored by the Biden administration at the moment is known as "parole in place." It is used on a small scale with veterans who are married to illegal immigrants on a case-by-case basis. The Biden administration has used something similar to admit refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan in recent years.    

Using the program would cut out a lot of regulations in the way of illegal immigrants married to US citizens to obtain a green card and legal status in the US. With the current number of illegal immigrant spouses in the US, people familiar with the process say around 700,000 would qualify for the change in legal status.    
  
Under the Biden administration, illegal immigration has skyrocketed, with different monthly illegal border crossings being broken multiple times. Illegal immigration numbers from China have also skyrocketed, up 4,000 percent since 2021.