After nearly a decade of living in fear that he might be forever separated from his U.S. citizen wife, Alex Paz Medrano was giving thanks on Tuesday as President Joe Biden announced a plan for them to stay together.

Biden announced an executive action to protect about half a million undocumented spouses of American citizens from deportation.

Anticipated for months, the plan drew applause and excitement among immigration advocates and many Democrats who have been pressing Biden to take the step.

“We all want to better ourselves, we all want progress for our families and I’m very grateful in the name of the … people who will benefit by having greater opportunities,” Paz Medrano said.

Medrano, of Hanover, Pennsylvania, immigrated from Mexico in 2005 and has been married to a U.S. citizen since 2016.

Immigration advocates and Democrats said that Biden’s actions can help mobilize a substantial segment of Latino and other voters who support protecting longtime immigrants from deportation and family separation — despite growing support among voters for stronger border measures.

“I have many employees who are in that situation — it is going to be a big help for many people,” said Pedro Zamora of New York, who owns several restaurants and nightclubs and employs about 400 people, including some with spouses who are undocumented. Zamora had advocated in Washington for the policy change.

Biden announced that when the plan is enacted, spouses of U.S. citizens who are undocumented and have been in the U.S. at least 10 years as of June 17, 2024, would be able to apply for legal permanent residency. In a major departure from current practice, spouses without legal status will be able to apply from the U.S. and not be required to go back to their native countries, which has resulted in long-term separations.

Biden also announced plans to make it easier for some immigrants who are college graduates, including those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program to get work visas.

“I know how life changing today’s announcement is for so many people who like me were worried about our safety and our future,” said Bruna Sollod, senior political director for the youth immigrant advocacy organization United We Dream.

An immigration action — and political plus?

The executive action is a counterweight to Biden’s immigration restriction action tightening asylum policies enacted earlier this month. Heavily criticized by some, it has been seen as a way to bring order to the border by the administration and its supporters.

Together, the two policies resemble the framework of previous sweeping immigration reform bills that Congress has repeatedly failed to finalize.

Carlos Odio, a co-founder of Equis Research, a Democratic polling firm, said in a call with reporters Tuesday that Biden’s two executive actions constitute a “both/and” approach to immigration that polling shows Americans prefer — both order at the border and something done for people who have been in the U.S. for a long time.

Odio said a recent Equis Research poll of 3,569 registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, California, Illinois, Maryland and New York, showed voters no longer saw Democrats as better at handling immigration.

The poll showed 49% of non-Hispanic and 41% of Hispanic registered voters trusted Trump more on immigration, compared to 38% and 34% respectively for Biden. The poll also showed that nearly three quarters of respondents said they lost that trust of Democrats on immigration because “Biden and Democrats make promises about immigration reform during the campaign but fail to deliver once they have won.”

Also “swing” Latino voters — those whose vote could swing from one party to another — who were not supporting Biden, said they would be more likely to support him if he adopted policies allowing longtime immigrants to work, remain in the U.S. or stay with families. The gains were higher among voters who listen to Spanish language media, Odio said.

“Only non-Hispanic Trump voters don’t like them (the policies), but these policy solutions resonate with persuadable Black and white voters (too),” he said.

Gustavo Torres, of the Maryland-based immigrant advocacy organization CASA in Action told reporters on the call that “if the Biden administration keeps moving in this direction, we are going to see an explosion of energy from our community,” adding the president’s actions will help mobilize voters in states like Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Vanessa Cárdenas, of the immigrant advocacy group America’s Voice, who called the president’s actions “a big deal,” said what Biden needs to do now is draw a “sharp distinction” between his approach and former President Donald Trump’s, adding that Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s plan is to deport the same people that “this plan is protecting,” including immigrants in the country for years.

“We must take them seriously,” Cárdenas said of Trump’s mass deportation plans.

‘Most significant protections’ since DACA

Rep. Nanette Barragán, a California Democrat who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said the action for spouses, along with an anticipated announcement of work visas for some college-educated immigrants and those with DACA, are “the most significant protections for immigrant families since the DACA program was first announced in 2012 by the Obama-Biden administration.” DACA refers to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a 12-year-old program that protects some 500,000 immigrants without permanent legal status from deportation and allows them to work and go to school in the U.S.

When running for re-election, Obama, too, was facing lagging Latino support because he had not moved an immigration reform bill through Congress and his administration was deporting record numbers of immigrants. With no congressional action on immigration, Obama created DACA and won with heavy Latino support. A similar program he created, known as DAPA, would have given legal status to parents of U.S. citizen children, but a court killed it.

DACA has been heavily challenged by Republicans since its inception and former President Donald Trump tried to end the program by the court. But he was able to shrink its beneficiaries by prohibiting filing of new applications. The number immigrants who don’t qualify for DACA now outnumber those who do because of the rules of the program.

America First Legal, a group started by Miller, said it would challenge Biden’s announced policies as well.

Mexico President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador praised Biden’s immigration plan along with other immigration policies.

“It is very good news that Mexican families in the United States are going to be regularized, especially students, young people,” said Lopez Obrador, whose country is the United States’ No. 1 trading partner.

He said Biden’s actions show he is “a man with convictions.”

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