A policy recently announced by the Biden administration will create a pathway to citizenship for about 50,000 children under age 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen and about 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens. It also will facilitate the process of receiving work visas for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
DACA was established by the Obama administration in 2012 to protect undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation. Many of those in the program, often referred to as “Dreamers,” now are building careers and establishing families.
The new policy will allow DACA recipients who have earned a degree at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education and have received an offer of employment from a U.S. employer in a field related to their degree to receive work visas more quickly.
While the fate of DACA remains uncertain in the court system, the AAP has filed amicus briefs in support of making the program permanent. The AAP also supports expanded health care coverage to DACA recipients.
The new policy also will allow certain noncitizen spouses and children to apply for lawful permanent residence — status they already are eligible for — without leaving the country. Officials say the policy will help U.S. citizens and their noncitizen family members stay together.
The AAP has been outspoken about the harms of family separation and has supported protective immigration policies like DACA.
“This (spousal path to citizenship) is an overall positive thing,” said Sural K. Shah, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP, chair-elect of the Council of Immigrant Child and Family Health. “It allows families to have that sort of mental safety of knowing they are not at risk of deportation.”
The 2019 policy statement Providing Care for Children in Immigrant Families calls the separation of children from parents and the detention of children “inhumane, counterproductive and threatening to short- and long-term health.” The statement calls for immigration policy that ensures children and families have access to health care and educational and economic supports, and keeps families together.
The 2017 policy statement Detention of Immigrant Children, which was reaffirmed in 2022, also supports keeping families together and providing care to support the health and well-being of families.
“More than 800,000 people have benefitted from DACA and many of those people are now adults who have children of their own,” said Dr. Shah, a primary care physician in Los Angeles County. “Any threats to the safety of that program — the downstream effect of that is how it affects children. The key is keeping families together and putting policies in place that respect their humanity and respect what it means to foster good health and healthy child development.”
The latest policies come weeks after an executive action by President Biden placed restrictions on the number of people allowed to cross the border. That action allows the border to be closed to asylum-seekers temporarily if average daily encounters top 2,500 between official ports of entry. AAP leaders say this process may endanger children and families if they have to wait at the border prior to receiving asylum.
“It’s concerning and worrisome on the whole,” Dr. Shah said. “There are some good things, but we want to make sure the overall strategy is committed to protecting immigrant children and families, and that means through all the policies, not just a select few.”
