“The reason we have not gotten immigration reform over the finish line is not because of a lack of will,” Menendez said. “We’re focused on getting the bill introduced,” one senior White House official said on the call, adding later that it was “too early to speculate” about its prospects or the legislative path it might take.ĭuring the virtual press conference on Thursday, Sanchez and Menendez, the bill’s chief congressional backers, said they hoped to work with Republicans on the bill but had no intention of abandoning the push for sweeping reform in exchange for a more piecemeal approach. The Senate is split 50-50 and some activists are pushing Biden to use to a parliamentary tactic that would allow Democrats to pass certain immigration measures without any Republican support. Officials dodged questions of how Biden planned to proceed if he could not win the support of Republican lawmakers. Under Trump, Republicans rallied around many of the former president’s hardline, isolationist policies that enraged Democrats and independents. Passing the bill in the Senate would require support from at least 10 Republicans, a tall order on an issue over which the parties have only grown more divided in recent years. ![]() The overhaul faces an uphill climb, as Democrats hold only narrow majorities in the House and Senate. An official said the goal was to stem the flow of migrants to the US border, a journey that has become increasingly perilous. The legislation would also establish processing centers throughout the region, where people from Central America could apply for refugee status to come to the US legally. To that end, it would invest $4bn over four years in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras with the hope of preventing people from fleeing as a result of poverty and violence. Instead of focusing on border security as a central component of the legislation, White House officials say the bill aims to address the “root causes” of migration. It also changes the term “alien” – a word immigrants advocates have long denounced as dehumanizing – to “noncitizen”.Ĭongress has tried unsuccessfully to pass an immigration overhaul several times in recent decades, relying on a formula meant to attract bipartisan support that conditioned a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people on enhanced border security and enforcement. ![]() It would also explicitly include same-sex partners as immediate relatives.Īnother aspect of the plan would repeal Clinton-era immigration rules that bar undocumented immigrants who leave the US from lawfully re-entering for three or 10 years, depending on how long they were unlawfully present in the country. Spouses, legal partners and children of permanent residents would be exempt from the current per-country caps, making it easier for them to join family already in the US. The proposal also attempts to streamline and expand the legal immigration system by raising the current caps on family and employer-based immigrant visas. To avoid a surge at the border, petitioners must have been in the US by 1 January 2021, and would have to pass all required criminal and national security checks as well as file taxes and pay application fees. After three years, they could apply to become US citizens. Some immigrants, including farmworkers, those immigrants granted temporary status after fleeing war and natural disasters, and undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children, would be eligible to apply for green cards immediately, the officials said. After five years, they could apply for a green card, giving them permanent status in the US and the opportunity to gain citizenship after three more years. Under the plan, eligible undocumented immigrants would be allowed to live and work in the US. The centerpiece of the legislation is an eight-year pathway to citizenship for the nation’s nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants, White House officials said on a call with reporters on Wednesday night. Democrats won a mandate in 2020, the senator argued, to rebuild the nation’s immigration system after four years of Donald Trump’s “hateful horror show”. ![]() “We have an economic and moral imperative to pass big, bold and inclusive immigration reform,” Menendez said during a virtual press conference. The proposal, built from the framework Biden outlined on his first day in office, will be introduced by California congresswoman Linda Sánchez, and in the Senate by New Jersey senator Bob Menendez, both Democrats with experience negotiating immigration legislation in Congress.
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