This bill, which provides protection to underage asylum seekers, is likely to meet strong Republican opposition. In the Senate, 60 votes are required to pass.
Tepesianos, whose immigration status remained in suspense throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, may see a ray of hope with the bill sent by the new US president, Joe Biden, to their country’s Congress.
After legal battles to prevent cancellation of temporary protected status (TPS) and attempts by former President Trump’s administration to end this program, Biden’s aggressive immigration plan is considering giving Tepesians to meet certain permanent residency requirements.
Three years later, these individuals can also undergo a series of additional tests and security checks, and if they demonstrate knowledge of English and the United States’ civilian aspects, they can apply for citizenship.
This path to citizenship also includes some immigrants who do agricultural work and “dreamers”, those who come under the Delayed Action for the Arrivals of Children (DACA) program, which protected those who arrived from deportation, as minors. This program was also under attack by the previous government.
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This bill is also considering extending this path to regularization for other undocumented immigrants who are not covered by the above programs. For those who manage to meet a range of security requirements, temporary residency may be available in five years and citizenship in eight years.
Protection of minors
The initiative, formally known as the United States Citizenship Act 2021, includes a series of protections for underage asylum seekers.
The first is to rescue a program set up in the Barack Obama administration that would allow children to apply for refugee or asylum seeker status in the United States from their home countries, without having to make the dangerous journey to the United States need to make.
In 2017, the Donald Trump administration stopped allowing children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to apply for asylum in their country.
It is also envisaged that minors will be legally represented when they submit their asylum application to the United States immigration courts.
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“We will no longer force children to present and present their own case. We’re going to help them with that, ”said New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, who has said he will introduce Biden’s initiative to Congress.
This legislator added that the initiative aims to increase the training of border agents in dealing with children in their care.
Under the Trump administration, at least seven minors died in the custody of border agents and officials who at the time admitted that they did not have the training or equipment to handle the flood of families arriving at the southern border, according to official U.S. Immigration records. They also noted that many minors ended their trip with serious illness.
The bill also includes hiring more immigration judges to handle asylum cases, and provides “humane alternatives” to detention. In addition, the documents will stop using offensive terms (such as “alien”) to refer to undocumented migrants. If this project is accepted, they will be known as “non-citizens” in later immigration laws.
A hard political battle is coming
While the initiative provides solutions for irregular and undocumented migrants in the United States, the path for this bill is not assured. In fact, he has been faced with harsh criticism of the Republican camp from the start.
Menéndez himself acknowledged that he “has no illusion” that adopting it is easy, but stressed that it marks the beginning of a process of “repairing the damage done (to migrants) and rebuilding policies that uphold the values of the community. nation reflects “.
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He added that this plan “aims not only to repair our broken migration system, but also to build a better system that will reunite families and bring undocumented communities out of the shadows and on a path to citizenship”.
On the other hand, in the Republican wing of the legislature, criticism was starting to come. “Biden’s amnesty plan will harm American workers, increase illegal border crossings, and affect the health and safety of Americans,” criticized Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton.
By envisaging permanent residence for millions of immigrants, Cotton adds, “this will enable Democrats to guarantee work permits, social security benefits and voting rights as soon as possible.”
If approved by a simple majority in the House of Representatives, it will go to the Senate where it requires 60 votes. That is to say, there must be at least 9 Republicans involved to implement this, something that seems like an uphill climb for now.