Two senators introduced a new bill in Congress on Friday that seeks to grant permanent residency to some of the more than 600,000 immigrants who were brought to the US by their families as minors, known as Dreamers.
It is the third time that Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham have introduced a similar bill, after previous ones failed to garner sufficient support in Congress.
The bill seeks to allow beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program who have studied, worked or served in the military for at least three years to apply for permanent residence and, eventually, citizenship. .
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Dreamers are teachers, nurses and small business owners in our communities,
but because DACA hangs in the balance in the courts, they live every day in fear of deportation,” Durbin, who has more than 15 years of experience, said in a statement. years of trying to pass legislation to give them legal status.
"It is clear that only Congress can give them the stability they deserve."
For his part, Senator Graham said that before thinking about giving the green light to this bill, it is necessary to restrict the current migratory flow across the border with Mexico, which the US has reduced by 40% with the expansion of Title 42.
“I hope my fellow Democrats understand that we must repair the border and deal with the tsunami of illegal migration before” giving immigration relief to DACA recipients, he said.
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In addition to educational requirements, the bill also requires Dreamers who wish to apply for residency to prove they are proficient in English, have no criminal record, and do not "pose a threat" to the country.
DACA, the program created by executive order in 2012 under the Barack Obama Administration, protects Dreamers from deportation and grants them renewable work permits.
But a series of legal challenges halted the registration of new applicants and in late January nine red states asked a federal judge to dismantle it.
President Joe Biden promised during his presidential campaign that he would protect beneficiaries and give them a path to citizenship, but a lack of consensus and political will in Congress has prevented this goal.