President Joe Biden recently announced he would implement a “parole in place” policy to protect approximately 500,000 undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation. Those affected will have three years to apply for permanent residency and will receive a three-year work permit.
To be eligible for the program, individuals must have been married to a U.S. citizen as of June 17, 2024, or the day before the program was announced. They must also have resided in the United States for more than 10 years and cannot have been previously deported. 50,000 undocumented stepchildren with a U.S. citizen parent will also be eligible.
The program is designed to keep mixed-status families together and provide stability to undocumented spouses who often had limited employment options and lived in terror of being deported after a car accident or other interaction with the legal or medical system.
The White House estimates that most of those eligible for the parole in place program were born in Mexico and have resided in the United States for an average of 23 years.
The application for the parole in place program is likely to be open by the end of the summer. Applicants will be judged on a case-by-case basis by a parole board, so the program will not grant blanket amnesty to an entire category of immigrants. Nevertheless, it is likely to be challenged in court by anti-immigration activists and attorneys general in Republican controlled states.
