Biden opens door for 500,000 immigrants to become US citizens

President Joe Biden is taking an expansive, election-year step to offer relief to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status in the US.

The move is aimed at balancing his own aggressive crackdown on the border earlier this month that enraged advocates and many Democratic lawmakers.

The White House announced on Tuesday that the Biden administration will, in the coming months, allow certain spouses of US citizens without legal status to apply for permanent residency and eventually, citizenship.

The move could affect upwards of half a million immigrants, according to senior administration officials.

“The Statue of Liberty is not some relic of American history. It still stands for who we are,” Mr Biden said from a crowded East Room at the White House, filled with advocates, congressional Democrats and immigrants who would be eligible for the program.

“But I also refuse to believe that for us to continue to be an America that embraces immigration, we have to give up securing our border. They’re false choices.”

Democrat Mr Biden’s action, which amounts to the most expansive federal protection for immigrants in over a decade, sets up a significant political contrast with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, whose hard-line stance on mass deportations includes rhetoric casting migrants as dangerous criminals “poisoning the blood” of America.

On Tuesday, Mr Biden accused “my predecessor” of preying on fears about immigrants as he chastised Trump administration moves, such as a zero-tolerance policy at the southern border that led to the separation of families.

But Mr Trump has leaned into his own policies as Mr Biden has faced disapproval of his handling of immigration throughout his presidency, and on Tuesday, Mr Trump’s campaign accused the incumbent president of creating “another invitation for illegal immigration”.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “Biden only cares about one thing — power — and that’s why he is giving mass amnesty and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegals who he knows will ultimately vote for him and the Open Border Democrat Party.”