Protections for half a million: Early today, the Biden administration announced that it plans to protect the roughly 500,000 undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens. Under the new policy, those who are illegally here and have been for a decade, who are married to Americans, and who have no criminal record will have an expedited pathway to getting permanent residency and citizenship, free of some of the bureaucratic hurdles that had formerly been in place.

“Marrying an American citizen generally provides a pathway to U.S. citizenship. But people who crossed the southern border illegally—rather than arriving in the country with a visa—must return to their home countries to complete the process for a green card,” reports The New York Times. “That means long separations from their spouses and families. The new program allows families to remain in the country while they pursue legal status.”

The new plan will be announced at a ceremony later today commemorating the 12th anniversary of former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shielded young illegal immigrants from deportation and made it easier for them to obtain permits to be able to work legally. Though DACA has been closed to new applicants since former President Donald Trump tried to end it in 2017—and it’s been in a state of legal limbo ever since, providing protections to existing recipients but leaving many feeling uneasy about its fate—President Joe Biden is expected to announce some work protections for DACA recipients in today’s speech.