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President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats proposed a major immigration overhaul Thursday that would offer an eight-year pathway to citizenship to the estimated 11 million people living in the US illegally.
The legislation reflects the broad priorities for immigration changes that Biden laid out on his first day in office, including an increase in visas, more money to process asylum applications and new technology at the southern border.
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It would be a sharp reversal of Trump administration policies, and parts are likely to face opposition from a number of Republicans.
Biden has acknowledged he might accept a more-piecemeal approach if separate major elements could be approved.
“We have an economic and moral imperative to pass big, bold and inclusive immigration reform,” said Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, one of the lead sponsors of the bill, in unveiling it Thursday.
Menendez said Democrats have failed in the past because they have too quickly given in “to fringe voices who have refused to accept the humanity and contributions of immigrants to our country and dismiss everything, no matter how significant it is in terms of the national security, as amnesty.”
Separately, enforcement guidelines released Thursday by the new administration would target immigration enforcement more directly at people in the country illegally who pose a threat. That, too, would be a reversal from the broader targeting policy of the Customs and Immigration Enforcement under Trump.
The major immigration overhaul legislation would offer one of the fastest pathways to citizenship of any proposed measure in recent years, but it would do so without offering any enhanced border security, which past immigration negotiations have used as a way to win Republican votes. Without enhanced security, it faces tough odds in a closely divided Congress.
The bill Democrats introduced Thursday would immediately provide green cards to farm workers, immigrants with temporary protected status and young people who arrived in the US illegally as children. For others living in the US as of Jan. 1, 2021, the plan establishes a five-year path to temporary legal status. If they pass background checks, pay taxes and fulfill other basic requirements, then, after three years, they can pursue citizenship.
The plan also would raise the current per-country caps for family and employment-based immigrant visas. It would eliminate the penalty barring those immigrants who live in the US without authorization and who then leave the country from returning for three to 10 years. It also would provide resources for more judges, support staff and technology to address the backlog in processing asylum seekers.
Democratic lawmakers, including lead sponsors California Rep. Linda Sanchez and Menendez, held a virtual press conference Thursday to unveil the bill.
Comprehensive immigration legislation has struggled to gain traction in Congress for decades.
Republican immigration hardliners were already panning the bill Thursday. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, charged in a statement that the bill “rewards those who broke the law” and “floods the labor market at a time when millions of Americans are out of work.”
“President Biden’s radical proposal is a nonstarter and should be rejected by Congress,” he said.
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