Philly families find hope in Biden efforts to protect undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens

Foday Turay learned he was undocumented when he tried to get his driver’s permit. He asked his mother for the necessary paperwork but she told him he had none.

His mother fled Sierra Leone when he was young, receiving refugee status in the United States. Turay stayed behind with his grandmother until he was about 6, and his mother decided to bring him to her, even without the right paperwork. That decision would hang over Turay like a dark cloud into adulthood.

In theory, the now 27-year-old assistant district attorney in Philadelphia has a pathway to lawful permanent residence through his marriage to a U.S. citizen, but quirks in the process have made it practically impossible. Mainly, he’d have to leave the country to apply for his green card.

New protections put forth by President Joe Biden’s administration, however, could help Turay and an estimated half a million people like him by removing one of the biggest obstacles in their path to lawful permanent residence. They wouldn’t have to leave the country to advance the permanent residency process. It’s the most sweeping immigration program in more than a decade.

“Nothing is guaranteed and that has been one of the most depressing factors for me,” Turay said. “The idea that I’m living in this reality where my time with my son is limited based on policy, based on a court system, based on what an administration feels that I deserve.”

Though it’s too early to know just how many people could benefit from the change in the Philadelphia region, immigration advocates and attorneys say the policy change could be life-changing for families such as Turay’s.

Even in Philadelphia, a city with a reputation as a friendly environment for undocumented immigrants, the threat of deportation is still a possibility.

Rochelle, who asked to keep her last name private fearing deportation from Philadelphia, arrived in the United States 20 years ago, searching for work that would allow her to support her ailing mother back in the Philippines. She fell in love, married a U.S. citizen, and had four children.

She, too, has a pathway to citizenship through marriage but she’d have to leave the country. And going back to the Philippines wouldn’t mean an expedited return.

People who stay in the country without documentation for an extended period face three- and 10-year reentry bans. A waiver exists, but there’s a yearslong backlog, and undocumented immigrants who are deported can also face bans, sometimes permanently.

“I was really afraid to go back to my country without a 100% guarantee that I’m gonna come back here because I’m gonna leave my husband and my children without anybody,” said Rochelle.

The Biden protections expand on an existing program referred to as “parole in place.” People who enter the country without authorization and have relatives in the military can avoid the bans and stay in the United States for a period of time while they seek work authorization, as well as permanent legal status.

Ricky Palladino, an immigration attorney at Palladino, Isbell & Casazza, LLC in Center City, said he’s seen a surge in calls from immigrants who could benefit from the change.

“This really helps a lot of people who have family ties in the [United States] and have the money and wherewithal to move ahead with it,” he said.

Still, the new spousal program has its cutoffs.

An oft-quoted estimate from immigration advocacy organization FWD.us places about 1.1 million undocumented people in marriages with citizens.

Yet to be eligible, applicants need to have been continuously in the country for at least 10 years, married to a U.S. citizen as of June 17, and have no criminal record. Ultimately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will decide whether they can apply for a green card.

Though the more granular details of when and how people can apply to this new program have not been released, the broad restrictions laid out by the Biden administration mean thousands of families could be excluded, including Allyson Batista, a U.S. citizen in Philadelphia championing her husband and mixed-status families such as hers since 2010. She welcomes the policy change and the relief it will provide for thousands of families, but is concerned that her husband might not benefit, because of his immigration history.

While she tries to focus on the construction business she runs with her husband and other accomplishments, her spouse’s legal status rears its head in small and big ways. She worries about life insurance for her husband, getting older with a safety net available only to her.

“These are crazy scenarios, but it’s the truth,” she said. “If anything happened to him, he has no Social Security built up. I have no security other than my own stuff from the time I worked, but when you marry you depend on each other.”

Most recently, a glitch in the federal student aid application for one of her children wouldn’t let Batista move forward without a social security number for her husband.

Allowing people such as Rochelle and Turay to wait in place while their green card applications move forward is considered one of the most consequential reforms in the immigration system since the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which helped shield immigrants brought to the United States as kids from deportation and gave them a way to seek work authorization for two-year intervals.

The program famously didn’t offer a pathway to citizenship. Though Turay is grateful for the protections offered by the program, he calls it a “two-year subscription plan” that leaves him unable to plan for the long term.

Adding to his stress are past efforts to dismantle DACA. The program has not taken new applicants since 2017 and while participants such as Turay can continue to renew their protection, DACA’s legality remains under scrutiny, expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court in coming years.

The spousal program comes as the Biden administration tries to walk the line of securing the border while appearing humane, in an election year when immigration is a hot-button issue even in Pennsylvania, far from the border.

» READ MORE: Biden is struggling in Pa. — even with his base — as voters prefer Trump on major issues.

Earlier in June, Biden announced plans to bar migrants who cross the southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum whenever the border is overwhelmed. The American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant rights groups filed a legal challenge and immigration critics are expected to challenge Biden’s plan to aid mixed-status families.

In addition to undocumented spouses, protections could extend to an estimated 50,000 noncitizen children under age 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.

Former President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has called for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. In Thursday’s presidential debate, Trump vilified immigrants but did not answer questions about the deportations and whether they would include spouses of citizens who’d been here for decades and had jobs.

For now, people such as Rochelle are trying to focus on the present. She is saving so she is financially prepared for when the application is unveiled in late summer.

Though she is not trying to get ahead of herself, she’s dreaming of getting health insurance, being able to travel freely, and for the first time, planning for the future.