US Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., has joined a group of 14 other Senate Republicans in an effort to urge President Joe Biden to rescind his recent executive order that will allow the undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens to become citizens.
Capito, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, signed on to a letter authored by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., asking Biden to withdraw the policy.
“We urge you to rescind this policy immediately and focus your efforts on securing our border against the cartels and adversaries who will welcome this chaos,” the letter reads.
The administration’s order “directly contravenes the laws Congress has passed, and it will throw fuel on the fire of the ongoing border crisis,” the senators wrote.
The order is intended to “promote family unity and strengthen our economy” by allowing “certain noncitizen spouses and children” to apply for permanent residence, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.
In order to be eligible, noncitizens must have resided in the country for 10 or more years as of June and be legally married to a U.S. citizen, while satisfying all applicable legal requirements.
The order is estimated to impact “half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21,” according to the White House.
Capito has been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s policies related to the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
“I think that it’s too little, too late, and it’s obviously a political maneuver by a president who sees his numbers tanking because the American people are concerned with the effects of illegal immigration all throughout the country,” she said.