ADVERTISEMENT

Biden to propose overhaul of immigration laws on first day in office

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
77,133
58,316
113
President-elect Joe Biden will roll out a sweeping overhaul of nation’s immigration laws the day he is inaugurated, including an eight-year pathway to citizenship for immigrants without legal status and an expansion of refugee admissions, along with an enforcement plan that deploys technology to patrol the border.

Biden’s legislative proposal, which will be sent to Congress on Wednesday, also includes a heavy focus on addressing the root causes of migration from Central America, a key part of Biden’s foreign policy portfolio when he served as vice president.
The centerpiece of the plan from Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris is the eight-year pathway, which would put millions of qualifying immigrants in a temporary status for five years and then grant them a green card once they meet certain requirements such as a background check and payment of taxes. They would be able to apply for citizenship three years later.
AD


To qualify, immigrants must have been in the United States as of Jan. 1, a move meant to blunt any rush to the border.
Beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — which granted key protections for “dreamers” — and the temporary protected status program for migrants from disaster-ravaged nations could apply for a green card immediately. The details were described by multiple transition officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The president-elect’s plan has been met with praise from pro-immigration advocates and Democratic lawmakers who have toiled to overhaul the immigration system for decades. But it also comes at a time when the Republican Party, led by President Trump, has shifted far rightward on immigration, complicating efforts at a deal that can get enough GOP support.
AD


In a significant contrast with the Obama administration — which was heavily criticized by the Latino community for not tackling immigration when Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the White House early in President Barack Obama’s tenure — Biden has made immigration his chief legislative priority behind the immediate health and economic relief stemming from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“Having leadership makes a big difference,” Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said in an interview Monday. “You cannot achieve immigration reform without presidential leadership, and from what I see, the seriousness of their purpose to start off with gives me a real good feeling that the president-elect is actually going to use capital to try to make this happen.”
The Biden effort would mark the most substantial attempt at a comprehensive immigration overhaul since the Senate passed legislation in 2013, only to have it collapse in the House, then controlled by Republicans, the following year.
AD


After that, pressure from Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates pushed Obama to issue a wide-reaching effort aimed at protecting parents of U.S. citizen children and green-card holders in the country illegally, but that action promptly was blocked in the courts.
Under Trump, the GOP-controlled Senate tried to pass various revisions to U.S. immigration laws, prompted by the outgoing president’s unilateral attempt to cancel the temporary protections for the young immigrants. Trump was ultimately rebuffed by the Supreme Court on his push to end DACA.
Biden’s bill will have three overarching pillars, the transition officials said: provisions to address the causes of migration, border management and a path to citizenship.

The focus on Central America reflects the message that Biden has relayed to senior officials in the region: that he will advocate for policy changes aimed at what drives scores of migrants there to come to the United States illegally to seek safe harbor.
AD

“Ultimately, you cannot solve problems of migration unless you attack the root causes of what causes that migration,” said one official, pointing to the various reasons — from economic to safety — that drive migrants to flee their home countries. “He knows that in particular is the case in Central America.”
Transition officials are aware of recent reports of the increased numbers of migrants at or heading to the border in anticipation of the end of Trump’s presidency, and urged them to stay in their home countries. They emphasized that newly arriving immigrants would not qualify for the legalization program that Biden proposes.

Biden wants to move the refugee and asylum systems “back to a more humane and orderly process,” the official said. But “it’s also been made clear that that isn’t a switch you flip overnight from the 19th to the 20th, especially when you’re working with agencies and processes that have been so gutted by the previous administration.”
AD

The president-elect hopes to reinstate a program granting minors from Central America temporary legal residence in the United States. The Trump administration terminated the program in August 2017, officials said. The administration also wants to set up a reunification program for Central American relatives of U.S. citizens that would allow those who have been already approved for U.S. residency to be admitted into the country, rather than waiting at home for an opening. The program would be similar to ones that existed for Cuban and Haitians but also were ended by the Trump administration.
The Biden proposal also would put in place a refugee admissions program at multiple processing centers abroad that would better help identify and screen those who would qualify to be admitted as refugees into the United States.

As for border enforcement, the plan calls on the Department of Homeland Security to develop a proposal that uses technology and other similar infrastructure to implement new security measures along the border, both at and between ports of entry. Biden has long vowed not to expand the border wall Trump has marginally extended.
AD

“This is not a wall, this is not taking money from [the Department of Defense],” a transition official said, referring to how Trump helped to finance his wall after pledging Mexico would pay for it. “It’s a very different approach.”
The legislation from the Biden White House also will contain several revisions to the legal immigration process, according to transition officials.

It bolsters the number of key employment- and family-based visas available by recapturing unused visas from previous years and exempting spouses and children of green-card holders from quotas that restrict immigrants from varying countries from immediately entering the United States.
It also grants work permits for spouses and children of temporary worker visa holders, although the number of available H-1B visas — for high-skilled foreign workers — and H2-B visas — lower skilled non-agriculture workers — won’t be expanded, officials said.
AD

Doctoral graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields also are exempted from visa limits that critics say have led to talented immigrants moving elsewhere on the globe, depriving the United States of their ingenuity.

The incoming administration has said Biden will issue a flurry of executive orders on his first day, including one that would repeal the ban on citizens of some majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States. In another potential executive action, the Biden administration plans to review TPS programs “across the board” to see which programs ended by the Trump White House — including benefits for immigrants who fled from El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti — could be reinstated.
Transition officials declined to rule out other immigration executive actions should attempts at legislating fail, but emphasized that only Congress can implement certain changes, such as a path to citizenship.
AD

“The president-elect supports resources that are there, and his secretary of homeland security will use them in a smart and humane way,” another official said. “But we really need Congress to step up.”
To win passage, the administration would have to retain all Democratic votes as well as persuade at least 10 Republican senators to cross the aisle. Some proponents of the 2013 effort — such as Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — remain in the Senate, although many others have since left.
Under Trump, Republican lawmakers favoring a more restrictive immigration system have gained a larger platform and, along with the president, have pushed measures limiting not only illegal but legal migration into the United States.
“He’s unveiling his draft immigration bill this week, and it’s what you’d expect from the party of open borders: Total amnesty, no regard for the health or security of Americans, and zero enforcement,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) tweeted Monday. “Let’s be clear: Joe Biden is prioritizing amnesty ahead of the pandemic or getting Americans back to work. We can’t let him get away with it.”
Menendez, a veteran of the 2013 immigration effort, said he believed the proposal from the incoming Biden administration was “definitely” more liberal than the compromise he helped negotiate as part of the “Gang of Eight,” which ultimately included a surge of border security resources that immigration advocates said was too draconian.
“The Biden-Harris administration is going to be strong partners in helping undo a lot of the Trump administration’s cruel and divisive immigration policy over the last four years,” he said.

 
  • Like
Reactions: lucas80
So get illegals already here to start paying taxes and have them on a path to residency and possibly citizenship as long as they're not drug dealers or rapists. So this means we'll still round up all the bad guys and the some who are good people are identified, given an opportunity to put skin in the game and stick around and make our country better. Then instead of a phallic gesture, make use of the drone technology that helps us patrol Afghanistan from DC and use it on the border. We can put Ted Cruz's face on the drones so he gets credit with the base and the illegals at the border turn and run away. Why is this not better than a wall?
 
Sad isn't it? Unfortunately for this country, this is only the beginning of idiotic legislation and executive order that will gut the United States. The left's dream of 3rd-world status gets closer and closer.

Mind listing what precisely you don’t like so we can have an actual discussion?
 
  • Like
Reactions: cigaretteman
This is what competence looks like folks, get used to it. Now we just need a few Republicans to unshackle themselves from the cult.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cigaretteman
The heads of the Radical Right will explode given what we've learned of Biden's initial round of executive actions. Most of it will be reversing Trump policy, but conservatives will be drinking heavily by this weekend.
 
Comprehensive immigration reform on day one, who knew it was so easy,... fuggin hilarious..
 
Some of this can be done via executive order. Parts of this like making DACA into law could get the votes in the legislature.

But other parts of this. . . they just arn't going to happen. Even if the senate went nuclear and removed the filibuster entirely. . . I don't think the votes are there. Conservative Dems like Manchin arn't going to go for it.

But maybe Biden just see's this as a way of opening up negotiations on comprehensive immigration reform.

Personally I would like to see the government institute stiff penalties on people and businesses who employ illegal labor.

If we really want to get a handle on immigration the first thing we need to do is discourage the use of illegal labor nearly out of existence. Right now the enforcement is too weak and the penalties are too weak to stop it from happening.

Instead the penalties need to be strong enough to ruin you on the first offense. Like if a business does this, the officers responsible go to prison for 10 years and the business goes straight into bankruptcy in which all of it's assets are sold to pay it's creditors and whatever is left is turned split between it's legal employees (who were not involved in the hiring of the illegals decision). It's shareholders lose everything.

Then we can spend money on hiring people to enforce these laws. Maybe even create a new agency specifically dedicated to finding people and businesses who employ illegal labor and prosecuting them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cigaretteman
Sad isn't it? Unfortunately for this country, this is only the beginning of idiotic legislation and executive order that will gut the United States. The left's dream of 3rd-world status gets closer and closer.

America needs more immigration for economic development. Just another example of how Trump's racist policies held back the US economy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cigaretteman
ADVERTISEMENT