LOS ANGELES — Miguel Aleman, a 39-year-old who was brought to the United States from Mexico at age 4, is among hundreds of thousands of immigrants hoping to find a path to citizenship through a new Biden administration program set to launch on Monday. The program is one of the biggest moves by Democratic President Joe Biden to provide legal status to long-term U.S.
residents who entered illegally. It comes months before the Nov. 5 election, where Republicans have made illegal immigration a central focus.
Without the program, Aleman, who has two young children with his U.S.-citizen wife and works as an Uber driver, would have to relocate to Mexico – possibly for a decade or longer – before being allowed to return legally.
“My whole family is here,” said Aleman, one of dozens of immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador and the Philippines who gathered at a Friday information session on the program organized by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. Keeping Families Together, announced in June, will be open to an estimated 500,000 spouses who have lived in the United States for at least 10 years as of June 17, Biden administration officials have said. Some 50,000 children under age 21 with a U.
S.-citizen parent also will be eligible. Biden unveiled the legalization program before dropping out of the presidential race against Republican Donald Trump, an immigration hardliner, in July.
Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic candidate earlier thi.