June 18, 2024 | What A Day Newsletter

What A Day: 3,650 day fiancé

President Joe Biden gives remarks in the East Room of the White House, during an event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), in Washington, DC. President Biden also announced a program that would allow undocumented spouses of US citizens to potentially become citizens themselves.(Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

Most Recent

View All

LUCID DREAMERS

The Biden Administration announced it will create a path toward permanent residency for approximately 500,000 undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens.

In order to qualify, applicants must have been in the U.S. for ten years and have been married as of yesterday, June 17. The executive action will also make the visa process easier for DACA recipients — the program that protects people who were brought into the U.S. illegally as children — to get work visas if they graduate from an accredited university and can work certain highly skilled jobs.

The immediate response to the move was predictably partisan. Democrats cheered, while Republicans warned it would lead to chaos. On his sad social media site, Trump called it “MASS AMNESTY” (all caps) and pledged to one day “SHUT DOWN THE BORDER” (again, all caps) and deport “Biden’s Illegal Criminals.” (mixed caps, maybe he got tired.)

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said the policy would create a “pull factor” and called the timing “an election year stunt.” In a statement, he wrote: “It’s like a magnet, attracting people into the United States who know that if they wait long enough, President Biden will find some way to allow them to stay.”
Rep. Pramiya Jayapal (D-WA) dismissed Cornyn’s predictions. “That’s just ridiculous. This is requiring people to have been here for ten years,” she told What A Day from a car en route to today’s DACA anniversary celebrations at the White House. Jayapal has been previously critical of Biden’s border crackdown, but was overwhelmingly supportive of today’s announcement. “It affects a significant number of people and families,” she said. “I think it’s a huge piece of the fairness of the immigration system for those people who have been here for a long time and are married to U.S. citizens.”

Will this policy have a tangible impact? Or is it a lip-service effort to win back Latino voters, who have cooled on Biden — and Democrats in general — in recent months?

A little bit of both, according to Clarissa Martinez, Vice President of the Latino Vote Initiative at UnidosUS. She told What a Day that Biden’s policy is “significant” and will impact hundreds of thousands of families. However, she said the timing was not coincidental, and that most policy-making right now is aimed at impacting the election. Latino voters want “a fair, firm and free-of-cruelty approach to what’s happening at the border,” she said. And while they don’t support every element of the administration’s immigration policy, Martinez said they welcome the president using what power he has to help.

So… has Joe Biden earned the Latino vote? Martinez says: “Our polling shows both candidates have work to do.”

Want more?

Our nightly newsletter keeps you in the loop on everything going on that you need to know.

NEWS NEWS NEWS

Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized China for supporting Russia’s defense industrial base, saying Beijing “can’t on the one hand say it wants better relations with Europe while at the same time funding the biggest security threat since the Cold War.” U.S. foreign policy, of course, is never guilty of hypocrisy.

Trump failed, once again, to have his New York gag order lifted after an appeals court declined to take up his complaint. He’ll have to continue to refrain from making public comments, in all caps or otherwise, about people involved in the case.

A single Republican blocked Senate Democrats’ plans to pass a bill banning bump stocks. The GOP has backed banning gun stocks in the past. But as Senator Chris Murphy (D-NY) told What A Day yesterday, no one should be surprised if and when they fall back in line with the NRA.

A member of President Biden’s Secret Service detail was robbed at gunpoint in Los Angeles while returning from a work assignment. Rumor is, the perpetrator was Commander Biden taking his revenge.

Steve Bannon will have to serve his contempt-of-congress time in real prison — not a minimum security camp-fed — due to a separate open criminal case against him. Here at What A Day we believe in the abolition of the prison industrial complex, although that might leave the Trump cabinet homeless.

Sag Harbor, NY, police say Justin Timberlake ran his BMW through a stop sign and allegedly swerved into oncoming traffic early Tuesday morning. He was subsequently arrested and charged with Driving While Intoxicated – a crime almost as bad as his performance in The Social Network.

This newsletter is sponsored by BetterHelp.

Summer is here! But amidst the barbecues and beach days, are you feeling some June gloom? Having a hard time with the news? Feeling the kind of dread that only the Supreme Court being in session can trigger?

If you’re thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It’s entirely online. Designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.

Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists any time for no additional charge.

Learn to cope with whatever life (or the Supreme Court) throws at you and get back to enjoying summer with BetterHelp.

Visit BetterHelp.com/WAD today to get 10% off your first month. BetterHelp.com/WAD.