In the United States, there is a great reaction from undocumented immigrants, particularly of Mexican origin, to the Biden administration's recent decision to grant work permits to newly arrived Venezuelans.

According to NBC, Consuelo Martinez, a Mexican immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for 27 years without permission, is one example. She expressed sadness to learn that Venezuelans have been granted permission to work, while she has been waiting for decades for a similar opportunity.

The report highlights a rally in Washington, D.C., in which hundreds of immigrants, employers and advocates called on President Joe Biden to use his executive powers to grant work permits to immigrants without legal status who have lived in the U.S. for a long time. The lack of immigration legislation in Congress and legal challenges over the decades have been cited as obstacles to expanding work permits.

President Biden has extended temporary protected status to Venezuelans, allowing them to work, but that measure does not apply to long-term undocumented immigrants. The report highlights that while Biden has granted work permits to specific groups, such as Venezuelans, Cubans and Ukrainians, the question remains about how to address the estimated 11.2 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

“About 11.2 million people lived in the U.S. without legal permission in 2021, having either entered the country without permission or stayed after visas expired, said the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. The majority are adults. While that was a slight increase over 2019, the undocumented population has hovered at about 11 million for 15 years, it reported. Of those, 63% had been in the U.S. a decade or more, 43% for 15 or more years and about 22% for 20 or more years”.

Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, points to legal challenges to extending Temporary Protected Status to all migrants, emphasizing that the president cannot grant authorization without underlying authority. Business groups argue that the labor shortage in the U.S. could justify expanding work permits to immigrants without legal status.

NBC News also mentions proposals to grant work permits through programs such as DACA but points out that legal challenges also surround these initiatives. The march and the “Here to work” campaign seek to raise awareness of the plight of long-term undocumented immigrants, highlighting the contribution they make to society.

Some members of Congress are pushing the administration for work permits, highlighting immigrants’ desire to work without fear of deportation. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, D-Illinois, emphasizes the importance of ensuring that people can work in peace, free from the fear of being detained or deported.

However, as the article notes, “Congress has, over almost the same time, become increasingly divided over immigration and allowed the undocumented workforce to grow, stymied by groups' differences and unable to reconcile itself with the always changing dynamics of immigration. […] in the last couple of decades, the numbers of people arriving at the border have spiked, with more arrivals from countries other than Mexico than in the past”.