Registration for new migrant regularization plan in the US will begin in August

• The program, which was announced a month ago, will primarily benefit people who do not have legal status and are married to Americans.

Registration for the new plan to regularize migrants in the United States, which is estimated to benefit half a million people, will open on August 19, the White House announced on Wednesday, July 17.

The program, which was announced a month ago, will primarily benefit people without legal status who are married to Americans and comes in the middle of an election year in which migration management has become a central issue for voters.

Starting on the date announced on Wednesday, people who wish to benefit from this program will be able to submit their applications and begin the process to obtain permanent residency in the U.S. without having to leave the country.

Photo: EFE

The White House announcement coincides with a visit by President Biden to Las Vegas, in the key state of Nevada, where he will give a speech at the annual conference of the migrant rights organization UnidosUs.

The Latino vote is key for any candidate to achieve victory in Nevada, where 1 in 5 voters is Hispanic, according to data from the organization NALEO.

Details of the regularization plan

The regularization plan is based on a legal figure known as “parole,” which is a temporary permit to remain in the United States, offering protection once morest deportation and, in this case, the possibility of obtaining a work permit.

With this permit, which will be valid for three years, migrants who entered the country illegally and are married to US citizens can apply for a residence permit and, eventually, citizenship.

In theory, undocumented people can obtain residency if they marry an American. However, to do so they must leave the country and go to an embassy, ​​which carries the risk of being banned from re-entering the US for periods of 3 to 10 years, as retaliation for having been in the US without legal status.

This “parole” eliminates the need to leave the country and allows migrants to wait for the government to grant them a residence permit without having to leave their families for an indefinite period.

With information from EFE

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