The Biden administration also announced guidance to make it easier for DACA recipients to obtain skilled-work visas.
DACA enrollee Javier Quiroz Castro joined Biden at the White House and said the program allowed him to work legally as a nurse in Houston, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It allowed me to live and work and build a family in the only country I have ever known and loved," he said.
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called Biden's new program "amnesty" that would create "another invitation for illegal immigration." Trump has highlighted crimes committed by immigrants and has repeatedly pledged to deport millions of people if elected.
A little more than half of U.S. voters back deporting all or most immigrants in the U.S. illegally, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows.
At the same time, separate polling by the advocacy group Immigration Hub found
, opens new tab
71% of voters in seven election battleground states backed allowing spouses in the U.S. illegally for more than five years to remain.
Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, said focus groups conducted by her organization with independent and Republican voters found they supported legal status for spouses.
"It boosts turnout in terms of Latino and base voters, but it also has support with the middle and the right," she said on a call with reporters on Monday, adding that most people thought the spouses could already legalize.
One couple who could potentially benefit from the action was eagerly awaiting more details.
Megan, a social worker from the election battleground state of Wisconsin, met her husband, Juan, two decades ago when she worked with his cousin and uncle at a restaurant during her college summer break.
Juan's family, from the Mexican state of Michoacan, had come to the U.S. for generations as seasonal workers, with his grandfather participating in a U.S. program for farmworkers. Juan was in the country illegally, but she never thought it would be an issue.
"I assumed maybe you pay a fine or something," she said. "The punishment is just totally disproportionate."
They have two daughters now - ages 4 and 7 - and still have not found a way to fix Juan's status. Reuters is withholding their last names because of Megan's concern they could face backlash.
Wisconsin does not issue driver's licenses to immigrants in the U.S. illegally, and the couple worry that Juan, who works as a landscaper, could one day be pulled over and deported.
She said the family likely would uproot and relocate to Mexico if Juan was ever sent back.
"It's just a low-level stress that's always there," she said.
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