Protections for half a million: Early today, the Biden administration announced that it plans to protect the roughly 500,000 undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens. Under the new policy, those who are illegally here and have been for a decade, who are married to Americans, and who have no criminal record will have an expedited pathway to getting permanent residency and citizenship, free of some of the bureaucratic hurdles that had formerly been in place.
"Marrying an American citizen generally provides a pathway to U.S. citizenship. But people who crossed the southern border illegally—rather than arriving in the country with a visa—must return to their home countries to complete the process for a green card," reports The New York Times. "That means long separations from their spouses and families. The new program allows families to remain in the country while they pursue legal status."
