After decades of failed attempts to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden are signaling openness to a piece-by-piece approach.
They unveiled a broad bill on Thursday that would provide an eight-year pathway to citizenship for 11 million people living in the country without legal status. There are other provisions, too, but the Democrats are not talking all-or-nothing.
“Even though I support full, comprehensive immigration reform, I’m ready to move on piecemeal, because I don’t want to end up with good intentions on my hands and not have anything,” said Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar. “I’d rather have progress.”
The pragmatic approach is a clear recognition of the past failures to deliver on a large-scale immigration overhaul — and how success could be even more difficult in a highly polarized, closely divided Congress.
The Democrats' legislation reflects the broad priorities for immigration changes that Biden laid out on his first day in office, including an increase in visas, more money to process asylum applications, new technology at the southern border and funding for economic development in Latin American countries.
But advocates for expansive immigration say they could pursue smaller bills focused on citizenship for groups such as young immigrants brought to the U.S. by their parents as children, for agricultural workers and other essential labor.
“I know what it’s like to lose on big bills and small bills. The fear that people have experienced in the last four years deserves every single opportunity, every single bill to remedy,” said Greisa Martinez Rosas, executive director for United We Dream, an immigration advocacy group.
“The biggest thing here is that we’re going to get something across the finish line, because not doing so is not an option.”
The broad legislation — which includes a pathway to citizenship, but not much in the way of the enhanced border security that's typically offered to win Republican votes — faces long odds with Democrats holding only a slender majority in Congress.
Even before the new bill was unveiled, Democrats were reigning in expectations for their final result. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin has said that any final Senate bill likely “will not reach the same levels” as Biden’s proposal.
Indeed, comprehensive bills negotiated by bipartisan teams of lawmakers failed multiple times during Republican George W. Bush’s administration and again in 2013 during Democrat Barack Obama's.
Republican Donald Trump signed legislation that increased border security, and took executive action to restrict legal immigration to the U.S. and remove some protections for immigrants living in the country set by Obama. Biden has signed a number of executive orders rolling back some of the Trump restrictions, but he promised throughout his campaign and transition that immigration overhaul would be a top priority.
The White House insisted Thursday there have been no decisions on strategy. But multiple immigration organizations said administration officials had signaled in recent conversations that they were open to a multilevel approach in which lawmakers would press forward on the comprehensive bill while also pursuing individual pieces.
Cuellar, who was in office for most of those early, failed attempts, said many in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are still committed to a comprehensive overhaul. He said the White House reached out to him and he advised them to start with a broad bill, but he added that “reality is going to hit people, hopefully,” and more lawmakers will get on board with a more incremental approach.
Indeed, Biden himself suggested in a CNN town hall Tuesday night that “there’s things I would deal by itself.” One of the lead sponsors of the bill, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, too, seemed to suggest Thursday he was open to a less expansive approach.
“If we can get certain elements of this standing up and passed individually both in the House and the Senate, that’s great,” he said.
Tom Jawetz, vice president for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, said that Biden’s decades of experience in the Senate have given him a realistic view of what’s possible.
“He also knows how to count votes, and he knows what it takes to get legislation across the line,” he said. “And so I think there is real energy behind pressing forward on all fronts and seeing what shakes out."
Democrats have a third option: Using a parliamentary maneuver to attach some immigration items to a budget bill, which would then require just 51 votes to pass. Advocates have been pressing the new administration to consider attaching a pathway to citizenship for some to an economic stimulus package that they’re expected to introduce after they’ve passed the COVID-19 bill. That approach would almost certainly face a strong procedural challenge.
“The ultimate goal is to make sure that 2022 doesn’t come around, and we have done nothing on immigration for another Congress,” said Jawetz.
Democrats have expressed optimism that this time will be different not just because of the shift in strategy, but also because they say the politics of the issue have changed. They point to support from business groups for reform, and they note that Latinos are not a monolithic Democratic voting bloc, that Trump improved his showing with Latino voters in the 2020 election.
Martinez Rosas said that if Congress fails to take action on reform, it will “absolutely” be a problem for Democrats in elections in 2022 and beyond.
“This will be the fight, the defining fight," she said. “The difference between now and in 2013, is that the progressive movement is unified around the acknowledgment that immigration is a must-fix issue.”
© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
68 Comments
bass4funk
Correct.
Yes, but the best way to solve that is to provide more work opportunities and better education and hold the teachers responsible that let these kids fail not a massive wage increase, you get the better skills and they work may be in the service industry jobs the pillow for time being as a steppingstone and then they move on and move upward.
Not if you’re reasonable.
SuperLib
Excellent. We agree that illegal immigration needs to stop, and one of the reasons is the harm it does to the black community. Now if I could just get you to agree that wages that put black people into poverty and discrimination in housing are bad things, then we'd really have an agreement.
I guess for now I'll have to settle for 1 out of 3.
SuperLib
Sorry, what are we debating here? Is it anyone's position that people should be allowed to enter the county illegally?
ulysses
Immigration under false pretenses should be equal to illegal immigration.
When a minor model, struggling for assignments is able to get an Einstein visa, but actual doctors, engineers, researchers struggle , there is something rotten with the immigration system.
Jsapc
I did? Wow, and here I was, thinking that I simply repeatedly proved your points wrong with actual facts and numbers until you had no more dishonest talking points to give us. I guess that's what people call "strawman arguments" these days?
lincolnman
Tell us about it - just look at how hard they are worked and mistreated in places like Mar-A-Lago, Bedminster, Trump Tower, and all those other Trump properties...
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/05/17/donald-trump-undocumented-immigrant-employees-kaye-dnt-ac360-vpx.cnn
zichi
bass4funk
Has did the majority of American families, unless they are black then they entered under slavery, even if legal at the time. The cost and time to locate and deport 10 million undocumented is almost impossible and would require the use of all immigration agents and more to make it unworkable.
theFu
I didn't mention any countries on purpose.
Any immigrant who comes legally, is welcome. No special treatment for any over represented groups.
There aren't 5.5M illegal German immigrants in the US. today either. The legal quota has been filled already by some countries.
Keep your eyes on the problem. Don't get side tracked.
Illegal immigration is the problem I want Biden to improve. If the illegal immigration problems are solved, then the US can allow more legal immigrants.
lincolnman
Seems Trump supporters lack the gene that recognizes satire...no wonder they don't enjoy SNL..
Now, tell us all about those Jewish-funded space lasers, and why they aren't helping heat up Texas?
Joe Blow
And the left accuses the right of espousing conspiracy theories.
Surprise, both sides believe in CTs.
GdTokyo
Immigrants are a source of continual national renewal and a source of competitive advantage in the world economy.
They should be embraced as they once were, not demonized by a group of know-nothing xenophobes.
zichi
Misguided since the problem predates at least back to president Bush.
zichi
bass4funk
2020:
"According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of U.S. adults 16-74 years old - about 130 million people - lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level."
Whatever happened to the Bush program "No Child Left Behind!"
You can't starve to death the undocumented.
lincolnman
You know that meeting in Cancun Ted Cruz went to? I heard it was really a meeting set up by Roger Stone, Don Jr, and Eric to begin planning to to recruit Hondurans to caravan to the border...
They know which area on the border to tell them to come to - the part that is open and has no wall...
Hannity was there too...his ratings are so bad, he needs some more "breaking tonight" fear-mongering fantasies....
Joe Blow
No, they should be deported and then get in line to immigrate legally.
Joe Blow
To be fair, illegal Hispanic immigrants will work much harder and without the complaints, attitude, and violence of the average black worker.
However, because of their lack of English and fear of being deported they're often overworked to slave-like conditions in some industries.
commanteer
Uh, no. It would transfer the costs elsewhere. Open borders is not a good idea at the moment. Everyone would suffer. Americans would suffer from mass migration, and the countries they come from would suffer by losing their youngest and brightest.
The obvious solution has always been simply to strictly enforce laws against hiring illegal immigrants, and not to offer welfare payment or other free benefits to them. If there are no jobs or benefits, most people will not be in a hurry to come over the border.
Mr. Noidall
no. Jsacp turned it into a a straw man argument and ran with it like Usain bolt.
zichi
The hiring of people are decided by the companies and businesses needing help. How many companies in Texas benefit from hiring the 1.75 illegal immigrants? Texas has 29 border crossings, more than any other state.
Lazarus Knows
It's actually policing the border that costs money. If you just opened them, abolished ICE, and allowed any and everyone is, it would save lots of money.
How many people have died in a school escalatoring?
zichi
Obama deported more illegal immigrants than Trump, who separated children from their parents at borders, and now Biden will try to locate them and return them to their families.
Jsapc
Some 6,500 Honduran migrants in caravans traveling north to Guatemala
Wait, you wrote they were "hundreds of thousands"? This is 94500 migrants shy of even one hundred thousand. Where's the rest of them?
Yeah, and he said that if democrats won, the caravan would flood america with immigrants. The democrats won. Where is the 2018 caravan?
And how many armed escalators do you have?
Bob Fosse
MS13 is your new bogeyman?
Ooooooh! Sounds scary. How many have you seen? Is it dangerous to go outside?
How did they magically appear and become a threat since November? Where were they hiding?
bass4funk
Not just Fox News, try again...
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-immigration-caravan-honduras-idUSL1N2JR032
take your pick
As I recall, Trump was in office and we had a zero tolerance and no catch release and anyone that was caught was probably sent back.
absolutely none, zero.
Mr. Noidall
Can’t we all just get along.
Jsapc
Yeah, more gun control for escalators!
Oh, I see, so you're just advocating putting all children of immigrants in rockets and shipping them to the sun? Gotcha... I see...
On Fox News, yeah. In reality, not really. Hey, by the way, what happened to the dreaded caravan that was supposed to flood the border if the democrats won in 2018? How many MS-13 members have moved in your neighbourhood?
zichi
Legalise the 10 million undocumented already in the country.
zichi
NOMINATION
that is a fake comment you have directed at me. I have never posted that.
u_s__reamer
For the last 5 years Trump played with immigration first as a dog whistle and then as a loaded gun to trigger a skittish populace into an emotional state of mind that could be manipulated for votes. To call anything Trump mouthed a "policy" would be a gross perversion of the truth. As Potus he had zero interest in his job which he always knew he was singularly unsuited for since his incurious mind has always been utterly incapable of grasping any intellectual concept that has no bearing on his self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement. We can now only hope that in his treatment of immigrants Biden will not repeat the crimes and mistakes of both his predecessors.
NOMINATION
Wait, that many entered the U.S. that you called the most racist and oppressed country on the planet?
bass4funk
The injuries can be just as devastating.
I see, so just look away, ignore the plights of unprivileged Blacks and move along, gotcha...Biden cares....I see...
I have been on this planet a very long time and when Democrats say “targeted immigration” that’s a euphemism for open borders, no wonder the caravans are just lining up by the hundreds of thousands.
Melania Trump it’s nuts from South of the border, she doesn’t represent Central America and her coming with her parents has nothing to do with the hundreds of thousands they’re trying to come in to the US and even Mexico will not except, please try and stay on the topic. Biden is an office now and let’s focus on him and his reckless immigration or lack of one policies, he is the current president.
Jsapc
And I fully encourage you to vote for whomever best represents your views at various elections! But please don't violently invade any governmental building if your candidate fairly loses. That's all we can ask as a nation.
zichi
The United States has more immigrants than any other country in the world. Today, more than 40 million people living in the U.S. were born in another country, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s migrants. The population of immigrants is also very diverse, with just about every country in the world represented among U.S. immigrants.
That would involve Melania Trump and her parents who were fast tracked to citizenship by their son-in-law.
zichi
Targeted immigration is not "massive immigration". Biden didn't even say anything about "opening up the border." " Black will be threatened." Fear Mongering!
Jsapc
Wait, aren't you against the "social welfare system"? Shouldn't you be happy it's "burdened" (it isn't) and therefore failing?
Yeah and... Who's gonna repair and maintain those escalators with no immigrants around?
Mr. Noidall
But I am the next best thing: A registered voter.
Jsapc
Wait, escalators have guns now?! That's terrifying!
It is indeed not bigotry or racism, but it is very basic fear-mongering, that in turn served as the basis for a very bigoted (and most of all ineffective) immigration policy during the Trump years.
bass4funk
That has absolutely nothing to do with opening up the border and letting everyone in for whatever reason without vetting them or scrutinizing every single person that comes in. Mexico doesn’t even do that and it definitely doesn’t help the Black community if you allow massive immigration into the country.
Says the people that droned on when one single person would die from COVID, if you want to pinpoint and undermine a single death based on this disease then you can make the exact same argument of people that were killed by these gangs. The underlining reason doesn’t really matter, death is a death and if it can be avoided it should at all cost.
Well, then instead of opening up the border and burdening the taxpayer in the entire social welfare system by allowing thousands into our country then we can use some of that money to repair these broken escalators and keep up the maintenance on them.
.
zichi
What did Trump call Mexicans?
The Avenger
We've reached the point that common decency gets criticized as radical. THAT is what is radical.
The repubs will find all kinds of reasons to oppose his plan or any plan and will then campaign saying that Democrats want open borders with no restrictions.
Jsapc
If I really have to think about things that practically never happen and have very small chances of happening, I'd rather think about dating Charlize Theron.
And then think about those they actually wrongly classified AS ms13. Because those cases actually exist too (wrong interpretations of tatoos, etc.)
I don't know why we would try to root out all 13 of you, and much less other "desirables".
And fortunately, you're not in charge of the country!
Mr. Noidall
One is too many when they’ve a gun to your head. But that’s not the point. The point is that ms 13 do cross the border. They do harm citizens. So asking about ms 13 or attempting to stop them is not racist are baiting or bigotry.
Jsapc
Out of 328 million ? That's 0.003%. Would you really call that "A LOT!"?
There are about 17,000 serious injuries related to escalators in the US each year. Escalators wreak much more mayhem on the american population than MS-13.
zichi
Some states like Texas reply on illegal immigrants for providing cheap labor for farming and business.
Mr. Noidall
I agree. Think about the ones that got through undetected. Think about the ones that agents wrongly didn’t classify as ms 13. At least we’ve established that ms 13 is crossing the border. Now, how do we go about admitting legitimate asylum seekers, welcoming immigrants the legal way, all while rooting out me 13 and other desirables? I don’t have the answer, but I know it ain’t giving asylum to 11 million and free this and free that.
bass4funk
Still 10,000 is a lot of people, A LOT! And with that number you can do a lot of damage to a lot of people for example...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/ktla.com/news/nationworld/127-suspected-ms-13-gang-members-charged-by-u-s-dept-of-justice/amp/
Jsapc
Between 2012 and 2017, out of 260 000 unaccompanied minors processed by border authority, 56 had confirmed or suspected affiliation with MS-13. Those are the numbers. 56 minors in 5 years, ouf ot 260000. That's 0.02%. There's probably even less for actual asylum seekers.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/26/16955936/ms-13-trump-immigrants-crime
Please give examples of US cities they have "rained mayhem" on. Because I can't find any.
But the attention that MS-13 has received is disproportionate to its impact. MS-13 hasn’t reversed nationwide trends of declining violent crime, even in the areas where they’re most powerful. And for all the horror it inspires, the gang has never numbered more than 10,000 members in the US. MS-13 has been responsible for gruesome crimes, but the fact is that it is not a major criminal presence at the national level. The reason it has suddenly become part of the national discourse on immigration policy is that President Trump has put it there, front and center.
nishikat
WRONG! I know many many hispanics and none of them care about the MS79 myth. But the real danger are those evangelical christian Proud Boys Trump people
Jsapc
So you mean Germans and the Irish, right?
nishikat
Trump's Proud Boys are more dangerous than MS19
Mr. Noidall
But you can’t keep doing that. You can’t keep calling basic questions and statements as automatically racist or baiting because it makes you uncomfortable or it clashes with your ideology. That’s a legitimate question. Many ms 13 infiltrate real asylum seekers as well as caravans breaching the border. Check the FBI databases that are open to the public. Ms 13 is real. They’ve rained mayhem on US cities. So the question is not loaded, it’s not racist. It’s addressing a real problem that Trump tried to fix. Calling everything racist derails all progress. Many immigrants of Hispanic heritage suffer at the hands of ms 13 because they live in the same neighborhoods. You’re just hurting your cause by doing this.
nishikat
MS13? They didn't try kill anyone in Washington. That would be the evangelical Trump people like Proud Boys. Mass shooters are often Trump people like Dylan Roof and the Texas Walmart shooter
nishikat
That's on Trump. He lost the election and senate die.to his insane behavior. Now he has lots of legal trouble
viking68
A rather baiting and self righteous question.
The prior policies would prevent asylum seekers who are being hunted and killed by those criminal groups, unless they were from a predominately white country like Norway or Sweden.
This kind of rhetoric has progressed to the point where right wingers think Russia is more favorable to whites than the U.S.
nishikat
Then who's going to wipe the butts?
Also armed illegals were hired to guard the Trump wall.
bass4funk
But that’s the fact and there are a multitude of reasons for that. When liberals have zero answers to addressing these problems, they will whip out the race card to quell dissent and then the problems are still never addressed.
But the Black communities in particular are mostly being devastated by illegal immigrants, that is very concerning and by not addressing the issue is racist.
Mr. Noidall
ok. I’m a little confused though. Part of the democratic gospel is that there’s an education gap between blacks and whites. They tell us of the disparity in math, reading, and science. They say blacks drop out at alarming rates. If this is true, then at least jobs not requiring a formal education are available to people who’d seem to need them disproportionately. All the poster did was state a fact: illegal immigrants, many without education themselves, and because of no papers, will most likely compete with African Americans who, according to democratic gospel, suffer from a lack of a good education and therefore are more likely to be stuck in low paying fields. Isn’t that the whole premise is systematic racism? And another thing, since when is a focus on blacks racist? Don’t we all focus on everybody? Do you consider African Americans special? Or off limits?
nishikat
No that would be Trump Proud Boys since they are in fact less educated especially in vocabulary. They also don't understand civil engineering since they can't understand that ladders can be used to go over walls. Also Trump people believe that Mr Clean treats covid-19. Liberals are more educated
Mr. Noidall
Proof that so-called liberal humanitarians think Mexican and immigrant are synonyms. Abstract concepts in their minds. Not real people. Plenty of immigrants, legal and illegal, other than Mexicans. Maybe p. Smith was right: a little too early for the informal racism.
viking68
The focus on "black communities" and insinuating that most are not educated didn't help?
There are plenty of non-black "communities" that meet this definition of being uneducated and outnumber the "black communities" used in the statement.
nishikat
If it were true it would be Trump's fault for acting so crazy that he not only lost but lost the senate as well. This is all on Trump.
nishikat
The wall. He hates Mexicans.
nishikat
Trump's wall is stupid. Especially since all they need are ladders and shovels
asiafriend
yeah. Because Trump never considered the threat part.
Absolute baloney! Show some proof that he considered every immigrant a threat. Of course you can't. Do you think MS-13 should be allowed into the country? Such binary thinking and illogical statements serves no purpose. Trump did not want people to come into the country illegally. What is wrong with that? He wanted people to come into the country legally and had a talent that could strengthen the country, such as engineers, computer scientists, etc.. Many that come into the country illegally get phony social security cards and also go on welfare, it was so bad that some hospitals in the south were under such financial strain that certain hospital units had to close down. Who pays for the health care of illegal immigrants? Of course, the citizens of the country to the tune of billions of dollars.
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/25/us/hospitals-feeling-strain-from-illegal-immigrants.html
https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/care-costs-undocumented-immigrants-absorbed-hospitals
bass4funk
“Illegal” immigration is a threat and always has been, not only on the economy, but jobs as well particularly, jobs in the service industry or low wage paying jobs. The Black community suffers the most as Blacks that aren’t educated, don’t have a high school or University diploma.
This from 2010
https://www.theroot.com/how-illegal-immigration-hurts-black-america-1790878554
Illegal immigrants do work American citizens won’t. Even former Mexican President Vicente Fox fell victim to the hype, infamously declaring in 2006 that Mexican immigrants perform the jobs that “not even blacks want to do.”
That means, if it comes down to paying low skilled illegals less than native born Black Americans, why wouldn’t they? Illegals will do “any” backbone breaking job to feed their families and support their extended families abroad, they will work incredibly long hours without complaining, these people are greatly exploited because of this and this displacement is devastating the low income Black community, not to mention with an already devastated economy not even every illegal or legally documented immigrant will be able to find work in this present day wrecked economy, the lockdowns are still in place, schools closed, restaurants by the thousands as well as hotels are closed, many will never re-open again and Biden is setting the country as well as these people for more unemployment illegals fleeing their countries for the very thing they’re looking for in the US and will be right back where they started.
theFu
except his wife and her parents?
Biden, during his last town hall meeting on Sunday made a few mistakes on immigration according to FactCheck.org.
He claimed that most illegal immigrants in the USA were not from Latin America, which is not true. Most are. Let me find his statements and the facts:
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/02/factchecking-bidens-town-hall-3/
I love legal immigrants. Anyone who follows the rules, gets in legally is welcome. People who attempt to jump lines irk me. Immigrants who are over-represented already inside the US shouldn't get preferential treatment. Regan provided a 1-time path for illegal immigrants to become citizens. Except it isn't 1-time if America does it every 40 yrs for the next crowd. The immigration laws need to be redone to remove the "carrot" that brings so many people to the US. The laws and policies the last 40 yrs haven't worked to reduce illegal immigration. It is too easy to violate those laws and get away with it. Easy for the people. Easy for employers. Stop it.
Strangerland
No, because Trump considered every immigrant a threat.
Mr. Noidall
yeah. Because Trump never considered the threat part.