HIAS Applauds New Policies Benefiting Immigrant Families 

SILVER SPRING, MD – HIAS applauds today’s announcement from the Biden Administration, which will have wide and positive effects on immigrant families and communities across the United States.

“This is an important step,” said Naomi Steinberg, HIAS Vice President of U.S. Policy and Advocacy, “We applaud the administration for doing the right thing and call on them to ensure that the policies are administrated quickly and fairly.”

The policies announced today allow undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens and their children who have resided in the United States for more than 10 years to be shielded from deportation and to apply for work authorization through a “parole in place” program. DACA recipients will be able to more easily access certain nonimmigrant work visas. These changes will have great impact on hundreds of thousands of people who have made this country their home, and will grant stability and security to their families, communities, and local economies.

The changes also come on the heels of a series of recent Biden administration policies that shut the border to people seeking asylum. “Right now, there are people at our border who are being denied access to seek safety and protection.”  Steinberg said, “While we will continue to push against any and all policies that curtail people’s right to seek asylum, we thank the administration for doing right by many immigrant families today.”