VOA慢速英语2024--Biden Announces Program to Give Half Million Immigrants Legal Status

Biden Announces Program to Give Half Million Immigrants Legal Status

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a program to offer a path to citizenship¹ to hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status in the United States.

Administration officials said the program will be open to an estimated 500,000 immigrants. To qualify, an immigrant must have lived in the United States for 10 years as of June 17. He or she must be married to a U.S. citizen. There is no requirement on how long the couple must have been married. People who reach the 10-year mark after June 17 are not eligible².

About 50,000 children under age 21 with a parent who is a U.S. citizen will also be eligible. The majority of the people who would be eligible are Mexicans, officials added.

If a qualifying immigrant’s application is approved, he or she would have three years to apply for permanent residency, receive a temporary work permit, and be protected from deportation³.

The program will let spouses⁵ and children apply for permanent residence without leaving the U.S., avoiding a possibly lengthy⁶ process and family separation. They could apply for U.S. citizenship after a period.

Administration officials said they expect the process will accept applications by the end of the summer.

Biden spoke⁷ about his plans at a White House event to mark the 12th anniversary of the Deferred⁸ Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

The DACA program was established under then-President Barack Obama. It offered protection from deportation and temporary work permits for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. Former President Donald Trump⁹ ended the program in 2017. Biden’s order to restart the program has faced several legal actions.

Biden also announced new rules that will permit some people admitted under DACA and other young immigrants to receive work visas faster. Those eligible included people who have earned higher education degrees in the U.S. and who have received job offers from American employers in a field related to their training.

Andrea Flores is a former policy adviser¹⁰ in the Obama and Biden administrations. She is now a vice¹¹ president at FWD.us, an organization that supports immigration. Flores said Tuesday’s announcement for spouses expanded on power used by presidents George W. Bush and Obama to permit “parole in place” for family of military members.

The parole-in-place process lets qualifying immigrants get on the path to U.S. permanent residency without leaving the country. It affected¹² people who were married to Americans but who were not U.S. citizens. Flores said it “fulfills President Biden’s…promise to protect undocumented immigrants and their American families.”

Karoline Leavitt is a spokesperson for Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. She called Biden's new program "amnesty" and said in a statement that Trump would "restore the rule of law" if reelected.

Tuesday’s announcement comes two weeks after Biden announced a new policy at the U.S.-Mexico border to halt asylum¹³ claims for those who do not arrive at official ports of entry.

Immigrant rights groups have taken legal action against the Biden administration over that policy. An administration official said Monday that the policy had led to fewer detentions¹⁴ and arrests at the border.

Words in This Story

status –n. the position of a person in legal terms often related to their citizenship

eligible –adj. able to do or receive something

application –n. a formal, written request for assistance, a job, membership in a group, among other things

residency –n. the condition of living in a place and being legally recognized to live there

spouse⁴ –n. a person who is married to another person

1 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

2 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

3 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

4 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？

5 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句

6 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 deferred   

adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从

参考例句：

• The department deferred the decision for six months. 这个部门推迟了六个月才作决定。
• a tax-deferred savings plan 延税储蓄计划

9 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

10 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

11 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

12 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

13 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

14 detentions   

拘留( detention的名词复数 )； 扣押； 监禁； 放学后留校

参考例句：

• Teachers may assign detention tasks as they wish and some detentions have been actually dangerous. 老师可能随心所欲指派关禁闭的形式，有些禁闭事实上很危险。
• Intimidation, beatings and administrative detentions are often enough to prevent them from trying again. 恐吓，拷打和行政拘留足以阻止请愿者二次进京的脚步。