Under a new Biden administration policy, illegal aliens who are deported from the United States no longer are forced to wait outside the country for up to 10 years before applying for legal status.
The law was meant to deter people from trying to live in the country illegally, the Washington Times reported.
Previously, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would have denied any application for legal status under the so-called three-year/10-year rule. That meant that anyone without legal status for at least six months but less than a year had to depart and wait three years before applying to come back legally. Anyone in the country illegally for more than a year had to wait 10 years.
Emilio Gonzalez, who headed the USCIS during the George W. Bush administration, said the new Biden protocol is like the Clinton administration policy "don't ask, don't tell." Under the 1990s policy, military applicants were not to be asked about their sexual orientation.
"We won’t ask you where you've been during your inadmissible period, and you don't tell us. It's sheer craziness," Gonzalez said.
The new DHS policy states "noncitizen’s location during the statutory 3-year or 10-year period and the noncitizen’s manner of return to the United States during the statutory 3-year or 10-year period are irrelevant for purposes of determining inadmissibility."
Robert Law, who led the USCIS policy office for the Trump administration, told the Washington Times the policy is "basically an invitation for any deported alien to pay the cartels to smuggle them back into the U.S. while they let the clock run out."
The Times said the policy will apply retroactively. That means migrants previously denied can file motions to reopen their cases.
