Biden broke his promise to provide citizenship to millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally

President Joe Biden campaigned on providing a pathway to citizenship to around 11 million people who were living illegally in the U.S. 

The president can't change immigration laws; Congress must do that. So, on his first day in office, Biden proposed a bill that would create a road map to citizenship for the millions of people in the U.S. illegally. Although Democrats narrowly controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate during Biden's first two years, the bill stalled.

Three years later, in February 2024, Biden supported an immigration bill a bipartisan group of senators had sponsored that focused on border security and did not include a pathway to citizenship. The measure sought to raise the initial asylum screening standard and created an emergency power to essentially deny asylum to people crossing the U.S. border between ports of entry. 

The bill failed to pass the Senate twice. President-elect Donald Trump urged its demise. 

In June 2024, Biden announced a policy change that would help people, who are in the U.S. illegally, get citizenship if they were married to or the children of U.S. citizens. 

That's because although being an immediate relative of, or married to, a U.S. citizen are among the limited ways people can gain permanent residency and eventual citizenship, people who entered the U.S. illegally and have these familial connections face life-altering barriers to acquiring that privilege: They must leave the U.S. and reenter legally to get permanent residency. But because they lived in the U.S. illegally, when they leave the country, immigration law bans them from reentering the U.S. for up to 10 years. 

Biden's program includes "parole in place," a protection to let people who qualify stay in the U.S. as they apply for permanent residency. (Three years after getting permanent residency, people can apply for citizenship.) 

The White House said the policy, if adopted, would help 500,000 spouses and 50,000 stepchildren of U.S. citizens. However, Texas sued the Biden administration to stop it, and in November, a federal judge ruled the program illegal.

Biden did not provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants who are illegally in the U.S. 

We rate this Promise Broken.