Haven’t we been down this road before? Many times now? Will we be reading about Comprehensive Immigration Reform 2.0, 3.2, or Version 7? I don’t know how to characterize it anymore. Or are we instead heading into a period of Executive Orders to effectuate change because, despite the Democrats being in control of Congress, there’s no desire (seemingly) by Republicans to work with their Democratic counterparts across the aisle for meaningful, and yes, comprehensive immigration reform? Time will tell.
Suffice it is to say, we should all keep an eye on the news during the first 100 days of the Biden Administration to see what unfolds. The President’s campaign promises were bold. Candidates’ election promises almost always are. And then, with victory in hand, the cold reality of actually governing sets in.
I personally sat in front of my television and watched President Biden’s inauguration speech in real time. It gave me hope, not only after having watched the events unfold at the Capitol building two weeks earlier, but after four long years of dealing with Donald Trump and his evil minion Stephen Miller, the tone was actually positive. At long last, someone else would be occupying the White House, and the Democrats controlled Congress, slim as their margin in both houses may be.
So, with that, President Biden, on January 20, 2021, sent the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 to Congress. Highlights of the proposed legislation include changes to strengthen and improve our legal immigration system, reunifying families who have been separated by years long visa backlogs, and providing a path to citizenship for Dreamers and other undocumented people residing in the United States while, at the same time, addressing the root causes of migration to the United States from Central America. There’s so much more in the bill.
The bill is strikingly similar in so many respects to a predecessor bill introduced years ago by a bipartisan group of Senators, known then as the Gang of 8,1 during the second term of the Obama Administration. No surprise in the current environment, the only two remaining Republican Senators from that group are no longer interested in supporting President Biden’s proposal. Go figure.
So, as Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Representative Linda Sánchez (D-CA) lead the introduction of the U.S. Citizenship Act in their respective congressional chambers, President Biden is busy at work, signing Executive Orders which, in the immediate term, will reverse President Trump’s executive order excluding undocumented immigrants from the reapportionment count, preserve and fortify protections for Dreamers, reverse the Muslim Ban, repeal President Trump’s interior enforcement Executive Order, and stop construction on the border wall, among other actions.
Governing by Executive Order is of course not the preferred means, but as I wrote some time ago, according to the American Immigration Council, between 1956 and 2014, there have been at least thirty nine (39) instances where a president has exercised his executive authority to protect thousand and sometimes millions of immigrants, in the United States at the time without status, usually in the humanitarian interest of simply keeping families together. So, here we go again.
President Biden has repeatedly voiced his commitment to ending the Trump administration’s inhumane and unfair immigration policies and, in doing so, laying out his own bold and expansive agenda that will ensure our immigration system reflects our values and undergoes the reform that we all agree is desperately needs. Day 1 of the Biden Administration has now come and gone. He has at least honored his promise to get the ball rolling by introducing the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 to Congress, and by signing a myriad of Executive Orders to lessen the toll of the Trump Administration’s terrible immigration policies. Let’s see where it goes from here.
1 The Gang of 8, as they were known in 2013, included Senators Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Lindsey Graham, Bob Menendez, Marco Rubio, and Michael Bennet. Also included in that group were the late Senator John McCain, and former Senator Jeff Flake.