Ahead of 2024, President Biden Can Deliver for the American Electorate By Offering a Path Forward for Dreamers, TPS-holders and Immigrant Families

The Biden-Harris administration inherited an immigration and asylum system deeply broken and its flaws were exacerbated aer four years of the Trump-Pence administration. Since their inauguration, from redesignating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti to providing health care access to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken unprecedented and long overdue steps to fix the immigration system within the bounds of their authority. According to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), the Biden administration has undertaken 403 immigration-related executive actions in its first two years. While Republican anti-immigrant legislative attacks, litigation, and false narratives attempt to weaponize the issue against President Biden and Democratsʼ reelection bids, the majority of American voters arenʼt interested in these hyperbolic, partisan politics that fail to outline and deliver on sensible solutions. Despite all the negative noise, recent and previous public opinion polling continues to underscore that voters want and support a balanced approach to immigration – humane solutions at the border that welcome and process people safely and legal pathways for immigrant families in the United States.

With public opinion on his side, ahead of the 2024 elections, President Bidenʼs unfinished business on immigration is not just on what more he can do to address border security, but what he can do for the immigrant families already in the U.S. who Americans recognize have contributed profoundly to the nationʼs culture, communities and economy. The president has a unique opportunity to deliver what the majority of voters overwhelmingly support: protection from deportation and a pathway to legal status for immigrant families, including Dreamers, those eligible for TPS, and long-time immigrant workers. Through administrative tools already at his disposal, President Biden could meet the moment, address the looming and likely termination of DACA, and fulfill a long overdue mandate of the American electorate to allow immigrant families to legally remain and work in the country they call home without the fear of deportation.

Hereʼs how President Biden can offer a path forward for immigrant families before the 2024 election cycle:

1. Get ahead of DACAʼs termination: Streamline existing legal processes for Dreamers and long-standing immigrant residents so they may gain legal status. By streamlining legal processes, qualifying Dreamers and immigrant families who have long been in the country, have U.S. citizen children or family members, and meet certain requirements can come forward and seek to earn lawful status in the U.S. Legal processes, such as “cancellation of removal”, are already in the books and, by making narrow adjustments, the administration could allow more people to apply for status, remove the fear of deportation, and permit people to work lawfully.
2. Use TPS as Congress intended: expand and extend TPS for those in the U.S. who canʼt safely return to their home countries. The deteriorating and dangerous country conditions in certain African, Central American and other countries merit an immediate redesignation of TPS. For example, the expiration of TPS for Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador would have dire and enormous impacts on the U.S. and the region in Central America. If the administration fails to act, they will be forced to defend the Trump-era decision to terminate TPS for these Central American countries. Without expanded TPS for these countries and others in similar conditions, thousands of families could be torn apart and sectors of the economy that depend on their labor would be undermined by their loss of work authorization and deportation.
3. Reduce the backlog for immigrant families. By leveraging the DHS Secretaryʼs parole and deferred action authorities in narrowly tailored ways for those here, the administration can address the long backlogs and allow long-term immigrants, including those with mixed-status families, to complete their family unity journeys. Today, U.S. citizens with undocumented family members needing whatʼs known as a “provisional waiver” are waiting close to 4 years to complete their family unity journeys.

The majority of voters support President Biden taking action to offer access to legal status:

• Voters see the immigration system as deeply broken – and want Washington to act. Nearly all voters (82%) think the immigration system is broken. 68% of all voters, including 74% of swing voters, want “a balanced approach that includes both border security and protects Dreamers, providing them and other eligible immigrants with a pathway to citizenship.”
• Only 32% of all voters, and only 26% of swing voters, want “an enforcement-only approach that exclusively focuses on border security and limiting the use of asylum.”
• Voters overwhelmingly support a path to citizenship, work permits, and Temporary Protected Status (TPS). 76% want a way for them to “gain legal status and a pathway to citizenship if certain requirements are met, including background checks,” and 64% support the Biden administration using its TPS authority.
• Majority support (69% support v. 21% oppose) for President Biden to take action that makes it easier for undocumented immigrants, including DACA recipients, who meet certain criteria to apply for work permits and protection from deportation.

Bottom line: By providing protections for immigrant families in the U.S., including Dreamers, President Biden can offer a winning message to the American people – one that is simple and will stand the political litmus test: in absence of congressional action, he delivered a path forward for Dreamers and immigrant families, allowing them to live and contribute to the nation they call home without the fear of deportation