Biden’s immigration whiplash, from tough talk to empathy in 2 weeks

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In two weeks, the White House has swerved from taking tough action against asylum-seekers trying to enter the country illegally to taking strong action to show empathy for people who have lived for years in the US immigration shadows.

It was in early June that President Joe Biden pulled from former President Donald Trump’s playbook to severely limit protections for asylum-seekers who cross the border illegally, effectively trying to seal the border to them, and addressing a changing mood in the country with regard to asylum-seekers.

That move angered many progressives and immigration advocates and drew a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. But those groups will now cheer Biden’s move Tuesday, offering new protection to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants – specifically some spouses of US citizens and their children – who are already in the US. The move could grant legal status to about 500,000 American families, according to the White House.

Biden promises empathy; Trump promises mass deportation

The new executive action offers a major contrast with Trump, who is promising to deport more than 10 million people from the US if he’s elected to a second term. At the White House, Biden argued Trump’s deportation policy would “rip spouses and children from their families, homes and communities and place them in detention camps.”

From CNN’s report by Michael Williams:

Under current federal law, an undocumented person who enters the United States and marries a US citizen must first request parole before applying for legal residency. That process requires them to leave the