It is likely that this project, which provides protections for minor asylum seekers, in the face of harsh Republican opposition. In the Senate it will require 60 votes to pass.
Tepesians, whose immigration status remained unresolved throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, are seeing a possible glimmer of hope with the bill that the new US president, Joe Biden, has sent to Congress from his country.
After legal battles to prevent the cancellation of Temporary Protection Status (TPS) and attempts by former President Trump’s government to undo this program, Biden’s aggressive plan by immigration it foresees to give to the tepesianos that fulfill certain requirements permanent residence.
Also, three years later, these people can undergo a series of additional examinations and security checks and if they demonstrate knowledge of English and civic aspects of the United States, they can apply to citizenship.
This path to citizenship also includes some immigrants who do agricultural work and the “dreamers”, those covered by the Deferred Action Program for Children (DACA), which protects from deportation those who they would have arrived as minors. This program was also under attack from the previous government.
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This bill also envisages expanding this path to regularization by other undocumented immigrants not covered by the aforementioned programs. For those who manage to pass a series of security requirements, temporary residence could be available in five years and citizenship in eight years.
Protection of minors
The initiative, formally known as the U.S. Citizenship Act 2021, includes a number of protections for asylum-seeking minors.
The first seeks to rescue a program established under the Barack Obama administration that allowed children to apply for refugee or asylum status in the United States from their home countries, without having to make the perilous trip to the United States.
In 2017, the Donald Trump administration stopped allowing children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to seek asylum from their countries.
Minors are also expected to have legal representation when exposing their asylum applications to U.S. immigration courts.
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“We’re not going to force kids to file and file their own cases. We’re going to give them assistance in doing that,” said New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who has said he will introduce the Biden initiative to Congress.
This legislator added that the initiative seeks to increase the training of border agents to deal with children in their custody.
Under the Trump administration, according to official data from the U.S. Migration Service, at least seven minors in the custody of border guards died and officials admitted at the time that they did not have the training or equipment to manage the ‘high flow of families reaching the southern border. They also noted that many minors ended their journey with serious illnesses.
The bill also includes hiring more immigration judges to prosecute asylum cases, offering “human alternatives” to detention. In addition, documents will no longer use offensive terms (such as “alien”) to refer to the undocumented. If this project is accepted, in subsequent migration laws they will be known as “non-citizens”.
There is a hard political struggle
While the initiative raises solutions for irregular and undocumented migrants in the US. The path to making this project law is not assured. In fact, from the beginning he has been facing harsh criticism on the Republican side.
Menéndez himself has acknowledged that he has “no illusions” that approval is easy, but stressed that it marks the beginning of a process of “repairing the damage done (to migrants) and rebuilding policies that reflect the values of the nation “.
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He added that this plan “not only seeks to fix our broken migration system, but seeks to build a better one that brings families together and leads undocumented communities out of the shadows and on a path to citizenship.”
For its part, in the Republican wing of the Legislature, criticism began to arrive. “Biden’s amnesty plan has hurt American workers, further illegal crossings of the border and will hit the health and safety of Americans,” criticized Republican Sen. Tom Cotton. Arkansas.
In contemplating permanent residence for millions of immigrants, Cotton adds, “this will allow Democrats to secure work permits, social benefits and voting rights as quickly as they can.”
If this is approved by a simple majority in the House of Representatives, it will go to the Senate where it requires 60 votes. That is, at least 9 Republicans will have to add up for this to happen, something that, for now, looks uphill.