Lawmakers Introduce Biden’s Immigration Reform Bill
Today, US Sentator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and US Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA) introduced the US Citizenship Act of 2021 in Congress. President Biden had proposed this comprehensive immigration reform legislation on his first day in office. Components of the bill include:
An eight year earned pathway to citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US,
A shorter path to legal status for agriculture workers, and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA),
A border enforcement plan that employs more technology to patrol the southern border,
A terminology change; changing all instances of “alien” in US laws/regulations to “non-citizen,”
Clearing green card backlogs for certain categories, including excluding derivative family members from counting against the quota
Changes to the legal immigration system which includes repealing the bars to reentering the US if an individual had previously been illegally residing in the country, increase the diversity visa lottery quota
Create a commission composed of employers, labor unions, and civil rights advocates to confer on recommendations for improving worker verification
Increase protections for immigrants who report labor violations and increase penalties for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers
It is likely that all proposals will not pass, and the bill will need negotiation to get bipartisan support, and even support from most Democrats. The bill is far from being law, but a comprehensive immigration reform bill is something that Biden previously worked on in his capacity as Vice President in the Obama administration, and campaigned on during his Presidential campaign. Any updates on the movement of the legislation through Congress will be updated here.
