President-elect Joe Biden plans to immediately put forward legislation offering a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants.
Four people who have been briefed on the plan say Biden plans to announce the legislation on his first day in office, according to the Associated Press.
“This really does represent a historic shift from Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda that recognizes that all of the undocumented immigrants that are currently in the United States should be placed on a path to citizenship,” Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said about the plan, which she was briefed on.
Biden’s incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, confirmed Saturday that Biden would send an immigration bill to Congress “on his first day in office” but did not elaborate on what was in the plan.
Biden is also expected to sign a variety of executive orders on his first day in office, some of which will be related to rolling back President Trump’s immigration policies.
Immigration advocates and organizations have been openly lobbying Biden to provide legal status to the millions of people currently in the country illegally.
“Undocumented immigrants are demanding a path to permanent legalization, dignity and respect for all immigrants living in cities and communities across this country,” Movimiento Cosecha, the pro-open borders arm of the liberal nonprofit organization Action Network, said in a statement this week. “But also those in detention centers, sanctuaries, at the border and even those that have already been ripped apart from their families through deportation.”
