Joe Biden’s Immigration Acid Test
The battle for reform offers the new administration a chance to exorcise Trumpism and prove it has agenda-setting grit.
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Activists and citizens with temporary protected status march toward the White House in a call for Congress and the Biden administration to pass immigration reform legislation.
Last week, Democrats introduced the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 a comprehensive immigration bill that will evidently be one of the Biden administration’s first major legislative battles after the coronavirus relief fight is finished. If passed, the Act will be the culmination of decades of efforts from both reformers and restrictionists to fundamentally reshape the American immigration system, including abortive attempts at crafting a path to citizenship for the undocumented during the Bush and Obama administrations and, of course, Donald Trump’s attempts to deepen the system’s racism and traumas. “I think for us, it s
February 19, 2021 Share
After decades of failed attempts to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden are signaling openness to a piece-by-piece approach.
They unveiled a broad bill Thursday that would provide an eight-year pathway to citizenship for 11 million people living in the country without legal status. There are other provisions, too, but the Democrats are not talking all-or-nothing.
“Even though I support full, comprehensive immigration reform, I’m ready to move on piecemeal, because I don’t want to end up with good intentions on my hands and not have anything,” said Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar. “I’d rather have progress.”
WASHINGTON — After decades of failed attempts to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden are signaling openness to a piece-by-piece approach.