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WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), and other leading immigrant advocacy organizations and community leaders will gather at the White House to join President Biden in his announcement of a series of executive actions to provide protections for many of our immigrant community members that have long called the United States home. This executive order will provide protection for noncitizen spouses who have been married to U.S. citizens as of June 17, 2024 and have resided in the United States for 10 or more years to apply for permanent residence, if eligible, without leaving the country and thus triggering the bars to reentry. It is estimated that 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen will be eligible for this protection.  

The administration also announced easing the employment visa process to help DACA recipients and Dreamers with a higher education degree and a related-field employment offer from a US-based employer to access more stable status through employment-based visas, potentially offering pathways to permanent residency. These policies, if implemented successfully, can be life-changing to individuals who live in constant fear of being detained or deported.

As a coalition of over 75 of the nation’s largest immigrant and refugee rights groups across 42 states, NPNA was founded to help implement immigration solutions such as these and applauds the administration for today’s actions. NPNA was founded in 2012  – the same year the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was created – to become the national vehicle through which field organizations across the country could coordinate and scale policy implementation to ensure the greatest reach to those directly impacted by new immigration policy solutions.

Today’s action demonstrates the executive power of the President to enact real and meaningful change in people’s lives – change that voters want to see. Across the country, voters want to see viable, humane, and accessible immigration solutions that build on-ramps to adjusting status and keep families together – but these solutions are only permanent when enacted through legislation passed by Congress. To secure long-term solutions for all members of our communities and finally modernize an outdated and fundamentally broken system, NPNA calls on Congress to bring forward larger immigration measures through bi-partisan action that centers on a fair, dignifying, and workable approach. 

Said Nicole Melaku, NPNA executive director, “Today’s actions are a result of decades of work, and should serve as a guiding light for the work ahead. NPNA was founded at a time when much larger immigration reform was on the horizon, with our member organizations building legal services programming to implement victories both large and small, out of the belief that a policy victory is not fully realized until it is implemented. Our communities across the country can count on NPNA members to be on the front lines of implementation to provide community education, legal services, and support for the spouses, parents, and children of U.S. citizens, DACA recipients, and others who may be eligible for this immigration relief.

“Today’s celebration and announcement also remind us of the significant impact that programs like DACA have had on the lives of thousands of people in our communities. While we welcome and celebrate this move by the administration as a significant milestone for the field – just as we did 12 years ago this week for the creation of DACA – we know that our communities need permanent solutions that not only reduce barriers to current pathways, but create expanded pathways to citizenship for the millions of people that have built their lives in the United States and provide public defenders in immigration proceedings for those at risk of deportation. Moreover, while this hard-won victory for our communities will bring relief to hundreds of thousands of families, it does not go far enough. Congress, with the administration’s support, must enact long-overdue reform that will provide stability and pathways to citizenship for all.”

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The National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) is a multi-ethnic, multiracial coalition of 75 of the nation’s largest immigrant and refugee rights organizations with reach across over 42 states. Together with our members, we advance immigrant and refugee equity and inclusion, build and expand immigration legal services and integration programming capacity, and drive campaigns that strengthen democracy through increased civic participation. See our website for more information at partnershipfornewamericans.org.