President Biden Releases Broad Immigration Plan
As one of his earliest actions in office, President Joe Biden has released the outline of a broad immigration plan that he plans to send to Congress for consideration.
The major feature of the legislation is to provide an eight-year path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people who currently are living in the United States without legal status. These immigrants would be eligible to go into a temporary status if they pass background checks, have paid taxes, and meet other basic requirements. Later, they would be eligible for citizenship.
According to Reuters, President Biden also wants to increase the number of available legal work visas and to allow certain immigrants who were deported during the Trump administration to apply to return to the United States to either reunite with family or for other humanitarian reasons.
While supporting the outline, Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. Senate said getting the bill through Congress would be a “a Herculean task.”