President Biden campaigned on a promise to legalize millions of long-term undocumented immigrants. For three years, he has managed to deflect criticism of failure to deliver results by pointing to the divided Congress.

Now activists are pressuring him to use his authority to protect this essential workforce. The question is whether he can do this without strengthening his MAGA opposition, which thrives on open-border hysteria. Should he even try, given the potential for lawsuits? The answer is yes. With creativity and moderation, he can outmaneuver the xenophobic wing of the Republican Party.

On November 13 and 14, a coalition of immigrant rights groups, business owners, Republican and Democratic officials and immigrants themselves plan to urge Biden to open the door to work permits for millions of people who have lived here for decades. They want him to grant them early release, as he did for hundreds of thousands of newcomers from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.

The Here to Work campaign targets countries facing labor shortages, such as in manufacturing, retail and healthcare. Small businesses have no resources to sponsor employees from abroad; they want to be able to legally hire from among the 11 million immigrants already here. Many of those people don’t take some jobs because they have to drive through immigration checkpoints. Others do not apply for a job because they need proof of work authorization.

Existing law, section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, allows the federal government to temporarily admit people into the country on a case-by-case basis if there is a significant public interest or urgent humanitarian reasons. . The American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), which is leading the campaign, hopes Biden will use that conditional authority to strengthen the workforce.

Some veterans of the legalization fight believe the campaign is ill-timed, as Republican Party-led states have filed suit to stop Biden’s existing use of parole and Republican lawmakers are threatening a government shutdown , unless Congress agrees to extreme anti-immigrant measures, including significantly reduced paroles.

It’s hard to imagine a more hostile environment for Biden on immigration, with Fox News beating the drum daily about border crossings, which are at historic highs. And some advocates are skeptical about the plans’ ability to survive a lawsuit, pointing to the failure of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), which was blocked by a judge before anyone could apply submit. This Here to Work program would have a much broader scope than DAPA. The more limited Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) for Dreamers survived for a while, but has since been blocked and is headed to the Supreme Court.

Deferred action is, of course, not the same as parole. A more similar program is the existing parole program for immigrants who are immediate family members of military members and veterans. Vice President Kamala Harris proposed using parole to protect Dreamers while she was running for president in 2019. The following year, a prominent immigration restriction think tank warned that it would then be impossible to thwart her plan in court . But the courts’ interpretations of parolees on a case-by-case basis suggest that the larger the group of beneficiaries, the more of an uphill legal battle a program faces.

By asking Biden to wave his magic wand and grant everyone work permits, advocates may be inadvertently repeating an incremental, decades-long pattern of asking for staggering changes at the expense of progress. The all-or-nothing approach has never worked.

Seeking work permits instead of citizenship still means asking Biden to unilaterally protect 11 million people. Advocates might have a more viable case if they focus on protecting a segment of the population that has bipartisan support, such as Dreamers, farmworkers or the undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens.

In fact, the campaign pays special attention to mixed-status families, inspired by the bipartisan American Families United Act introduced by Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas). Escobar is collecting signatures for a letter calling on Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to parole spouses of U.S. citizens to keep families together. This is a fundamental aspect of our American values, she told me.

The campaign’s broader demand for work permits for all is less strategic. It could provide unnecessary fodder for MAGA propagandists, while hurting Biden among progressives who will think he refuses to help. But these broad demands reflect understandable desperation within the long-neglected undocumented community.

One woman flying from California to

Washington, D.C.,

to participate in the November 14 campaigns is a 34-year-old registered nurse who came here from Mexico at the age of 16 with her parents. She worked in a trauma center while training to be a nurse at the height of the pandemic. But since she completed her training, she can no longer work in a hospital because she has no papers. She lives with the fear of being forcibly separated from her three U.S.-born children. The fear that you could be deported and lose your children is always there, she told me, as she burst into tears.

One way Biden could make progress is by designing a program that would allow states to opt for parole for undocumented residents in struggling industries. This idea, floated by the campaign, could deny Republican-controlled states the legal standing to challenge the plan and sue to obtain an injunction.

Last month,

Gov. Gavin

Newsom signed a bill that authorizes him to work with the federal government to protect farmworkers from deportation using parole based on substantial public benefit. Other states with labor shortages should follow California’s lead. Even Republicans

governors Governments.

Greg Cox of Utah and Eric Holcomb of Indiana have called for state-specific work permits for immigrants. Biden could start with farmworkers in California and certain workers in other states, then create a parole program for Dreamers and undocumented family members of U.S. citizens.

In the meantime, immigrant rights groups have time to refine their message. They can’t blame Biden. The coalition’s business partners have influence in Congress. They should pressure Republican lawmakers to support standalone, bipartisan bills for Dreamers, farmworkers and other popular groups.

The Democratic leaders of the Senate, including the majority leader

Chuck Charles E.

Schumer

from New York,

Chairman of the Judiciary Committee

Dick RichardJ.

Durbin

of Illinois

and Alex Padilla

of California

, who chairs the Judiciary’s subcommittee on immigration, should also speak on behalf of these groups during the upcoming government shutdown negotiations. Why not force the Senate to vote on these limited immigration measures? It’s time for everyone to work together and stop passing the buck.

@jeanguerre