Biden policy that protects undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens is on hold. What's next?

A Biden administration program offering a path to citizenship for up to half a million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens is on hold while a federal court considers a challenge from 16 Republican-led states. For more on this issue, John Yang speaks with Ashley DeAzevedo, president of American Families United, an advocacy group that backs the program.

Read the Full Transcript

John Yang: A Biden administration program offering a path to citizenship for up to a half a million undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens is on hold. That’s to give a federal court time to consider a challenge from 16 Republican led states.

The states went to court just four days after the keeping families together. Program went into effect in August. They said it essentially grants immigration amnesty to people who are in the country illegally. A federal court hearing is set for November, 5 Election Day.

Ashley DeAzevedo is president of American Families United, an advocacy group that backs this program. Ashley tell us how this program works and how it was before, what the spouses of U.S. citizens had to do before?

Ashley DeAzevedo, President, American Families United: Yeah, thank you for having me. And what this program did was essentially remove the necessity for a spouse of a U.S. citizen to go to their country of origin for an interview, it did not grant anyone else any type of pathway that didn’t exist.

What it did was take people who have been here for over 10 years, married to a U.S. citizen and with no disqualifying criminal background, and allow them to process their paperwork here in the United States.

Before this program was in place, people were forced to go abroad, and sometimes the wait was long, and there was a separation from their spouse, and they even found denials in their home country, and then they were separated and stuck outside of the United States.

So it created a real hardship for American families for spouses like me, to have someone go abroad for this process and then not be able to return home.

John Yang: And some of these spouses have been in the country for a very long time.

Ashley DeAzevedo: Absolutely. On average, these spouses have been here 23 years. So working, contributing to the economy, paying taxes. You know, they’re your neighbors, the people who’s, you know, kids your kids play with. We go to the same churches, shop in the same food stores.

What it is, you know, most people don’t realize when you marry a U.S. citizen, you don’t automatically get a green card, and you don’t automatically become a citizen. There’s a lot of roadblocks and a lot of hurdles in the way, and there are a lot of families that are hurt because of that.

John Yang: Now, there were a lot of people who applied and were approved for this before the court froze things. People can still apply, but they they’re not approving any new applications. What happens to the people who applied before and were approved before?

Ashley DeAzevedo: Now they’re able to move forward to the next step, so they can apply for their work permit, and then after a certain period of time, I believe it’s a year, they can apply for their green card and go through the process, you know, how they would regularly.

John Yang: The opponents of this say that it’s mass amnesty. They say that it encourages illegal immigration. What do you say to that?

Ashley DeAzevedo: I mean, that’s just silly. If you think about it, by definition, you have to have been in this country for 10 years as of June 17. So that’s not encouraging anyone to come over the border or come to this country, there was a cut off. If you were in the country for nine years and 363 days, guess what? You didn’t you — did not make the cutoff, and it’s frustrating.

But no, amnesty, absolutely not. These are people that already have a pathway. It’s just making it a little bit more simple and removing the hardship on American citizens.

John Yang: And your group is backing this. Why?

Ashley DeAzevedo: My group represents 1.1 million U.S. citizens whose spouses face obstacles in overcoming or going through the legal immigration system. We are the people that are here to shout from the rooftops that it’s not like you see on TV or in the movies.

Unfortunately, so many families find themselves separated, living in the shadows in the United States, and this is just something that will make our economy better. It’ll make our neighborhoods safer, and it’s the right thing to do. These are people, again, that have been here, contributing for over a decade at minimum.

John Yang: To apply for this, the people have to go to the government and say, Yes, I am in this country illegally. You’ve got a candidate for president right now who’s talking about mass deportations. How does that factor into people’s decisions about whether to apply for this?

Ashley DeAzevedo: It’s a real concern. People have actually decided to wait until after the elections before applying, because it is really scary to hear as an American citizen that your family has a target on its back. We really do live like second class citizens. Nobody can understand the trauma and the fear of just day to day life, not knowing if your spouse is going to be taken away, if they’re not going to come home, it’s hard for regular Americans to understand that thought process and that lifestyle.

So it absolutely is a concern. But our hope is that people see the opportunity and they continue applying. We believe that this is on strong legal ground, and it will eventually be successful in the courts, and we’ll hope to see some more grants of parole soon.

John Yang: Ashley DeAzevedo, American Families United. Thank you very much.

Ashley DeAzevedo: Thank you. Applause.