A “loophole to citizenship” announced by President Joe Biden on Tuesday will shield an estimated 50,000 of Michigan’s 100,000 illegal immigrants from deportation, according to immigration advocates.

Executive orders issued by Biden on the 12^th anniversary of former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will offer protection from deportation for illegal immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for more than a decade and are married to a U.S. citizen, Michigan Advance reports.

A new DACA policy will also allow participants who have graduated from an accreted university and have an offer for employment in the U.S. to quickly qualify for temporary work visas.

The American Business Immigration Coalition estimates 50,000 in Michigan illegally will be shielded from deportation, a figure that doesn’t include DACA recipients with job offers, according to the news site.

Former President Donald Trump condemned the “MASS AMNESTY to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens” before Biden even announced the changes, vowing to reverse course if elected in November.

“On day one, we will SHUT DOWN THE BORDER and start deporting millions of Biden’s Illegal Criminals,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We will once again put AMERICANS First and MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!”

“Biden’s mass amnesty plan will undoubtedly lead to a greater surge in migrant crime, cost taxpayers millions of dollars they can’t afford, overwhelm public services, and steal Social Security and Medicare benefits from American seniors to fund benefits for illegals – draining the programs Americans paid into their entire working lives,” Trump national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Tuesday statement cited by Roll Call.

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

Congresswoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., posted to X the change will “reward those who broke the law by handing them a loophole to citizenship.

“Awfully convenient move 5 months before an election,” she wrote.

Biden is going to reward those who broke the law by handing them a loophole to citizenship.

Awfully convenient move 5 months before an election. https://t.co/if3GyDXbtG

— Representative Lisa McClain (@RepLisaMcClain) June 17, 2024

Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

Michigan Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt offered a similar reaction.

“In America, you don’t reward violating the law. Open-border policies like this only incentivize the chaos created at our border by the Biden administration,” he posted to X. “That’s why Senate Republicans proposed a ban on sanctuary cities & vow to oppose driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.”

In America, you don’t reward violating the law. Open-border policies like this only incentivize the chaos created at our border by the Biden administration.

That’s why Senate Republicans proposed a ban on sanctuary cities & vow to oppose driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. https://t.co/v5shjJzAUf

— Senator Aric Nesbitt (@SenAricNesbitt) June 18, 2024

Biden’s executive order, which a White House fact sheet claims will benefit 500,000 illegal immigrants and 50,000 of their children, came the same day Midland Republican state Rep. Bill Schuette introduced House Resolution 283, calling on the Biden administration to reinstate the Trump administration’s Remain in Mexico program for processing migrants and asylum-seekers coming from Mexico.

“Our southern border is creating a humanitarian and national security crisis for our nation. We need to secure our border to stop the flow of dangerous drugs like fentanyl into our nation and protect our communities from the drug cartels and gang lords that are exploiting our porous border,” Schuette said.

“Under President Biden’s failed leadership we’ve seen this crisis only get worse and it is past time to get serious about this problem,” he said. “Step one would be for President Biden to change course and reinstate the Remain in Mexico program.”

Schuette cites the recent murder of Grand Rapids’ Ruby Garcia by a previously deported Mexican national, as well as 172 on the terrorist watch list Border Patrol encountered last year, as evidence of the dangers posed by the Biden administration’s border policies, which ended the Remain in Mexico program in 2021.

Another illegal immigrant was convicted of murder in Grand Rapids last year, while others in 2024 have been arrested for soliciting sex from minors in Shiawassee County, sexual conduct with a 15-year-old Livingston County girl, multiple sex assaults in Ann Arbor, a fatal hit-and-run in Grand Rapids, and breaking into a home in Sturgis to molest two girls under the age of 13.

“Protecting our families and communities and securing our country’s borders is a common sense issue,” Schuette said.

HR 283, like other Republican bills aimed at addressing illegal immigration, have virtually no chance of gaining approval in the Michigan Legislature controlled by Democrats, who applauded Biden’s move on Tuesday.

“I can tell you that this is an incredible opportunity for people that came into this country, searching for opportunity, fell in love and married someone, and they’re American in every single way but on paper,” said state House Majority Floor Leader Abraham Aiyash, D-Hamtramck.

In a virtual press conference praising the Biden administration’s action, Aiyash “spoke about how immigrants and their families are an important voting bloc for Democratic candidates, and this policy will help Biden’s reelection,” Michigan Advance reports.

Aiyash, ironically, is among Democrats who supported a campaign that urged Michigan voters to cast “uncommitted” ballots during the state’s February Democratic presidential primary in response to Biden’s handling of Hamas’ war against Israel.

The uncommitted movement, along with an aligned “Abandon Biden” campaign, resulted in more than 100,000 uncommitted votes in February, and has since expanded to more than 500,000 nationwide. Supporters have vowed to oppose Biden in November unless he calls for a ceasefire in the war, and halts all military aid to Israel.

Biden’s executive order comes as Democrats in Lansing work to establish Michigan as “the state of choice for many newcomer populations.

Those efforts involve Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposal to spend $8 million to cover legal fees for “asylum seekers” who are mostly illegal immigrants who apply for asylum once caught, $738,000 in grants “to support newcomer integration,” $500 per month rental subsidies for “newcomers,” and other spending.

A recently released report from the American Immigration Council shows Michigan’s immigrant population is growing nearly 10 times faster than the overall population. The number of immigrants totaled 687,700 in Michigan in 2022, or about 7% of the population.

Illegal immigrants account for about 15% of the state’s immigrant population at 102,700 people, according to the report.