Following up on a campaign pledge, President Biden’s White House has sent a comprehensive immigration reform bill, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, to Congress. The balanced proposals in the 350+ page bill, which includes a path to regularized status and eventually to citizenship for the qualified undocumented, stand in stark contrast to the harshly anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies of the previous administration.
Among its many provisions, the bill proposes an eight-year path to citizenship for immigrants who currently live in the U.S. as undocumented persons. Undocumented persons who arrived in the United States before January 1, 2021 would need to enter into a temporary, or prospective, status for five years before they can apply for a green card and then would need to wait another three years before they can apply for citizenship. Exceptions to the eight-year process would exist for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children – sometimes called Dreamers, people in Temporary Protected Status and farmworkers. Individuals in these groups would be immediately eligible to apply for lawful permanent residence, so long as they meet eligibility requirements which include a rigorous background check and proof of payment of back taxes.
Other components of the bill reflect the new Administration’s commitment to increasing the availability of visa numbers so that individuals who have already been sponsored for family- or employment-based immigration do not have to wait years – or longer – to be reunited with their families or take up sponsored employment. As part of its solution to the problem of long backlogs and wait times, the bill would increase the per-country ceilings for family- and employment-based immigrants and exempt certain visa categories from numerical limits including spouses, partners and children under the age of 21 of green card holders and U.S. Ph.D.’s in STEM disciplines.
The bill also addresses the problem of “dual intent” by expressly permitting international students attending U.S. institution of higher education, and a selection of other non-immigrant to apply for green cards while still maintaining their “temporary” status in the U.S. The bill also increases the number of Diversity Visas – immigrant visas randomly awarded to carefully screened immigrants from countries less represented in the U.S. – from 55,000 to 80,000.
The White House understands that no comprehensive immigration bill would be complete, or have a chance of passage, without addressing the real problems arising from illegal immigration and criminal immigrants. To address these issues, the Administration’s immigration bill also includes a substantial investment in controls at the US-Mexico border and resources to stop undocumented immigrants arriving from Central America.
The bill includes a myriad of other measures, including beneficial changes to refugee processing, enhanced efforts to combat drug and human trafficking, provisions to benefit farmers, provisions for attracting immigrants to parts of the country in need of economic redevelopment, a redefining of “conviction” to give deserving immigrants a second chance and a humane focus on children and families.
Political realities make the passage of the bill in its current form in both house of Congress unlikely. However, the Administration understands this and has expressed a willingness to take up parts of the bill separately, with the hope that enough Republicans will join the Democrats to make positive and long-awaited changes possible.
For additional reporting on the Biden Immigration bill, click here. To read the White House Fact Sheet on the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, click here.