The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed two immigration bills that would provide a pathway to citizenship to approximately 3 million people illegally working and residing in the United States.
While the Biden administration’s focus is on the southern border, where several thousand children are arriving each week only to be released into the country, Democrats remain focused on pushing bits and pieces of President Biden’s larger immigration reform bill through Congress. Republicans have lambasted Democrats’ attempts to pass “amnesty” bills that they say will incentivize people outside the U.S. to attempt to get into the country in hopes of being the beneficiaries of similar future bills.
Nevertheless, Democrats in the Senate will now have the chance to move forward after both newly passed bills first advanced out of the House in 2019 but were never picked up by the Republican-controlled Senate. They need 60 votes to pass through the upper chamber, and Democrats will likely have to woo Republicans with concessions. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said in a floor speech Thursday afternoon that he is hopeful the Senate will move quickly.
“This legislation today is a major achievement,” Hoyer said. “Let’s bring them out from under the cloud of being kicked out.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said his panel will begin considering the bills in the coming weeks but did not promise either measure can pass the Senate.
The American Dream and Promise Act passed 228-197 with nine Republican votes. The bill, introduced by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of California, would give more than 2 million people the ability to apply to become lawful permanent residents, a prerequisite for becoming a citizen. Categories include “Dreamers,” or people who were brought to the U.S. as children, and others who are protected from being deported under the Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure programs.
California Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s Farm Modernization Workforce Act would give approximately 1 million illegal immigrants who work in agriculture the ability to become legal residents then apply for citizenship down the road. In total, 2.4 million farmworkers are not authorized to work in the country but have worked in various essential jobs, including harvesting crops and caring for livestock amid the coronavirus pandemic. It passed 247-274, with support from 30 Republicans.
The legislation would mandate all agricultural workers be screened by the government’s E-Verify system before being hired to ensure they have legal status, a move that Republicans have long supported. The bill also reforms the H-2A visa program to give employers a greater ability to get employees year-round.
“With legal status and a path to citizenship, farmworkers would be able to earn higher wages and exercise their rights under our labor laws to demand better working conditions,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement. “In turn, businesses that rely on farmworkers would have a more reliable and stable workforce.”
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In February, more than 100,000 migrants were either encountered after illegally coming over the border or turned away at crossings because they lacked legal documents. The figures are the highest since the humanitarian crisis of 2019, and the Biden administration expects more children without parents to show up at the southern border this year than any year in the Border Patrol’s 97-year history.
