They will not succeed in crossing the US border, says lawyer 0:56
(CNN) -
The Biden administration, along with Capitol Democrats, is preparing to unveil legislation this week that seeks to provide a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
For decades, lawmakers have tried to reform America's immigration system and have come up short.
The latest effort will be an equally big boost, as Democrats only have a narrow margin in the House and Senate and are up against a Republican Party that has moved further to the right on the issue since the 2013 bipartisan bill. .
Biden's bill will likely also join a host of other immigration measures that focus strictly on undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children;
they are in the US under a form of humanitarian aid;
and they are working in agriculture.
This would establish a dizzying number of attempts to legalize the undocumented population.
Biden reiterated Tuesday that he wants a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, but expressed his willingness to pass other immigration measures in the meantime.
"Yes, there is a wide variety of things that relate to immigration," the president said during a CNN forum when asked if he would sign a bill that did not include a path to citizenship.
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6 takeaways from the CNN forum with Joe Biden
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The House previously passed a bipartisan bill that would grant legal status to thousands of undocumented farm workers and a separate bill that addresses beneficiaries of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and two other programs, Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Forced Departure, which offer temporary relief.
Democratic lawmakers hope to resurface those bills in plenary in the House before April 1, when they can introduce legislation that has already passed the House bypassing the committee.
"It gives us the most options if we send all three bills to the Senate," said Rep. Jim Costa, a Democrat from California.
"Yes, it is ambitious, but we have been blocked for four years."
Immigrant advocates have emphasized the need for legislative reform after years of constant policy changes and executive action that have put millions of lives in limbo.
Trying several ways to achieve that reform is a necessity, they argue.
"We want to be pragmatic and get things done quickly," said Kerri Talbot, deputy director of the Immigration Hub, an advocacy organization that works with Congress.
Road to the citizenship plan
White House officials recognize the limitations of executive authority to modify immigration policy.
"The president has a lot of authority to fix the immigration system in different ways," Tyler Moran, special assistant to the president for immigration at the National Policy Council, said last month during the winter meeting of the US Conference of Mayors. .
"But what the president can't really do is give people permanent status and we've done a lot of careers in this, but we really have to do it to make sure people are on the path to citizenship," he added.
A group of House Democrats is leading the effort to pass Biden's immigration bill.
“President Biden has laid out his vision for strong immigration reform.
Now, it is up to Congress to comply, "said Democratic Representative Linda Sanchez of California in a statement.
"With a Democratic majority in both Houses, and an overwhelming majority of the public on our side, as well as a number of legislative tools at our disposal, I believe we will succeed in finally securing permanent solutions."
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey will take the lead from the Senate side.
The bill is expected to be introduced by the end of the week, according to a Democratic source.
Biden's bill, titled the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, addresses the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., boosts border technology and targets root causes of migration, according to a fact sheet of the White House.
In particular, the bill provides an immediate path to citizenship for agricultural workers, DACA recipients, and holders of temporary protected status.
It also outlines a plan for undocumented immigrants that would allow them to eventually apply for 'green cards' if they pass background checks and pay taxes.
The legislation signals the Biden administration's approach to immigration, focused largely on considering immigration holistically and not just at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The bill, for example, will include $ 4 billion in funding to increase assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and establish safe and legal channels for migrants to seek protection.
«The president's proposal for immigration reform is a starting point for negotiations, but it starts from a position of strength, unlike the proposals we have seen in previous years that condition legalization to massive increases in law enforcement immigration enforcement, massive staff increases, and additional bans on legalization based on criminal conduct, ”said Jorge Loweree, policy director for the American Immigration Council.
"This is a significant rethink."
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The threat of veto is gone
In the days after Biden's election, the outlook for what might be possible with immigration reform began to change on Capitol Hill.
While attendees and members acknowledged that Republicans would surely never go as far as they wanted on some issues, the hope was that without Donald Trump, lawmakers could return to the negotiating table.
"There are Republicans who want to do things," Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, said at the time.
“Trump may still be out there as a private citizen making a fuss, but as soon as you don't care about a veto threat, some things become more possible.
It may not be what you have with a strong Democratic majority, but I think there is a possibility to do more than some limited solutions.
Even the Democrats who have worked on the package have signaled their willingness to pave the way for a comprehensive bill to get results.
Anything that passed in the Senate would need 60 votes, which means 10 Republicans would have to participate.
"I understand that, even though I will lead the White House bill, I have been here long enough to understand that there is a tug of war," Menendez told reporters last month.
"I mean, immigration has obviously been difficult in the past for me to have bipartisan support, even internal support among Democrats to be on the same page."
DACA and 'Dreamers'
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who was part of the Gang of Eight that helped craft the latest comprehensive immigration bill, told reporters in January that the sweet spot was probably something about DACA.
"I think comprehensive immigration is going to be a tough sell given this environment, but I think DACA is possible."
Graham and Senator Dick Durbin reintroduced legislation this month that would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.
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It is not the first time that the so-called "DREAM Law" has emerged.
In 2001, Senators Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, and Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, introduced the Alien Juvenile Development, Aid and Education Act.
It sought to give young undocumented immigrants a path to legal status and earned the group of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children the nickname "Dreamers."
But building on that legislative push today looms an early ruling by a federal judge in Texas who has a case challenging DACA before him.
"I don't think they are acting with the urgency that a judge can fail any day in Texas," said Greisa Martínez Rosas, executive director of United We Dream, a congressional activism organization.
"We have to go this year with something in our hands."
When asked about the anticipated Texas ruling, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reiterated Biden's defense of DACA.
"It is a program that he has long been committed to protecting and preserving and taking every step to do exactly that," he said.
"I'm not going to anticipate a judge's ruling in Texas."
CNN's Daniella Díaz and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
Citizenship
