A recent immigration policy announcement from the White House has implications for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants and for the skills advocates who are part of NSC’s ongoing campaign to Create an Equitable, Resilient Workforce System.
NSC has long worked to improve policies shaping immigrants’ access to workforce services, especially with regard to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). This work has continued as part of the recent campaign.
Overall, immigrants comprise 1 in 6 US workers, and while most have legal work authorization, those that are undocumented face substantial barriers in pursuing education and workforce development opportunities. The new policy announced by the Biden administration will provide significant new opportunities to a subset of undocumented immigrants – those who are spouses of US citizens.
Please see below for an informative Q-and-A on the new policy announcement and what it means for educators and workforce advocates.
The Biden administration’s June 18 announcement means that certain undocumented immigrants who are married to US citizens will be able to apply for permanent resident (“green card”) status without having to leave the United States.
The announcement applies only to a subset of undocumented immigrant spouses of US citizens – those who have been long-term residents of the United States and who meet other strict criteria.
Previously, such individuals often had to leave the US and wait abroad for as long as 3 to 10 years before they could reenter. This discouraged many eligible individuals from applying at all.
(Note: The White House announcement also briefly mentioned plans to make the pathway to an employer-sponsored work visa more accessible to certain immigrants who have graduated from a US college, including Dreamers. NSC will share more information on this policy as it becomes available.)
Note: It is possible that this program will face legal challenges from immigration opponents. If that happens, this timeline may be delayed.
No. The announcement only pertains to people who have already been living in the U.S. for at least 10 years. In fact, federal officials estimate that on average, the people who are eligible for this process have lived here 23 years.
Eventually, yes. Over time, as eligible immigrants begin to obtain green-card status, they will become eligible for certain federally funded programs that they were not able to access when they were undocumented.
For example, green card holders are eligible to participate in Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Title I-funded training and employment services.
Individuals with green cards are also eligible non-citizens for the purposes of federal student financial aid, such as Pell Grants.
The White House estimates that those eligible for this new policy include approximately 500,000 undocumented spouses of US citizens, plus an additional 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a US citizen.
However, because applications will need to be reviewed individually and approved on a case-by-case basis, it will take substantial time for applications to filter through the system. Thus, the rate at which new green card holders will be approved will be over a period of months and years. In addition, based on past experience with similar immigration programs, it is very unlikely that all eligible individuals will apply for the status.
There are three main messages that program providers and advocates should be conveying:
