Durbin Applauds President Biden's Announcement of Relief for Undocumented Immigrants

CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today applauded President Joe Biden’s announcement to offer relief to hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including DACA holders and undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens.

Today’s announcement offers relief to certain undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens, which will protect these individuals from deportation, offer them work permits, and ease their path toward permanent residency. More than 1.1 million undocumented spouses married to a U.S. citizen have lived in the U.S. on average 16 years, and many have been married to their U.S. citizen spouses for at least a decade. An estimated 45,000 undocumented individuals are married to a U.S. citizen in Illinois. Today’s announcement is expected to impact approximately 500,000 undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens and 50,000 undocumented children of U.S. citizens nationwide.

Today’s announcement by the President will also streamline the process for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) holders to obtain a nonimmigrant visa. Approximately 78,000 DACA holders are employed and have a bachelor’s degree, which could make them eligible for work visas. American employers often have sought to sponsor DACA holders for a nonimmigrant status that would provide both the DACA holder and the employer with more stability in light of pending litigation to end DACA. However, applicants must depart the United States to obtain such visas and many face processing hurdles. 

In March, Durbin led a group of 19 Senate Democrats in a letter to President Biden requesting this administrative relief for undocumented immigrants—including allowing undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens to seek protection and streamlining the process for DACA holders to change their immigration status.

“Allowing those who have lived here at least ten years a chance to continue living here without fear of deportation is fair and long overdue. The Republican Party and its chosen leader see immigration in terms of fear and hate and ‘poisoning the blood’ of America. President Biden understands that, as challenging as it may be, immigration is at the heart of who we are as Americans. I commend President Biden for today’s announcement. It’s the right thing,” said Durbin.

As the lead author of the Dream Act and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Durbin has been a champion for immigration reform for years. Durbin and then-Republican Senator Richard Lugar were the first members of Congress to call on President Obama to establish the DACA program in April 2010. Durbin, along with seven of his Republican and Democratic colleagues, authored comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would have made critical reforms to our immigration system and addressed many of the challenges our nation faces at the border today. That legislation passed the Senate with bipartisan support in 2013 but did not receive a vote in the Republican-controlled House.

-30-