Again I Want To Warn You That The Biden Executive Plan Is Not Yet In Effect

I want to remind you that the new program announced by President Biden last week  (6-18-24) to grant a special parole with a path to lawful permanent residency to spouses of U.S. citizens who have at least 10 years residing in the United States is not yet law.

We are waiting for them to set the rules on how the program will work, how much it will cost, and what kind of application will be required. Also, unfortunately, we are waiting for some Republican states to file lawsuits challenging the program, although we hope that these lawsuits will not be successful. At the moment interested persons can begin to gather documents showing that they have been in the U.S. for at least 10 years without interruption, also that they are married to a U.S. citizen, if they do not meet these requirements they will not be eligible for this program.

In the case that a person has 9 years and nine months residing in the United States, he/she cannot just wait to reach 10 years because the program establishes that he/she must be 10 years old by June 17 of this year, date in which it was announced, we do not know if some criminal problems such as driving while intoxicated among others will affect a person's eligibility for this program, also people who are in the process of applying for a waiver such as the I-601A to obtain their residency from outside the United States could be eligible to apply under this program and not have to leave the country. This could  be a great benefit.

The status which is called "parole in place" gives qualifying individuals the opportunity to obtain legal residency within the United States without having to leave. You should stay informed through this newspaper and other media, and you can also call my office to find out when the program becomes effective.

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SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST IMMIGRANT DENIED RESIDENCY AT CONSULAR INTERVIEW

Last week the Supreme Court of Justice in a 6 to 3 vote ruled against a Salvadoran immigrant who applied for legal permanent residency through his U.S. citizen wife and was denied at the time of the interview at the U.S. Consulate in El Salvador.

The judges unfortunately decided that the Salvadoran's wife who is a U.S. citizen does not have the right to sponsor and bring her husband as a lawful permanent resident, even though they are married, and that persons whose applications are denied at the consulate do not have the right to appeal the consulate's decision. In this particular case the U.S. consulate in San Salvador denied the application because the Salvadoran immigrant has tattoos and according to them may be a dangerous person who is a member of a criminal gang, they also denied them the opportunity to present evidence to prove that the tattoos have nothing to do with being a member of a criminal gang or any other negative situation, although they were able to prove that he had no criminal record.

Unfortunately this means that just because a person is a U.S. citizen, it does not give them the right to bring their spouse to the U.S. and that according to the majority of the judges who ruled against the immigrant this is considered a favor and not a right. The supreme court in the decision stated that the determinations of the consulates are not appealable making the decisions, even arbitrary, final even if they harm U.S. citizens who after waiting years to get the interview at the consulate a bureaucrat can spoil everything for them.