- It will also allow unused family-sponsored
and employment-based visas to continue
to be available into 2022.
Hi, we've got some important immigration news for you today.
The Senate Budget Committee has released
a 3.5 trillion budget that includes $126 billion
to potentially give amnesty
to undocumented individuals living in the United States.
In addition, the Department of State has released
a $52 billion budget to address the visa backlog
created by the COVID pandemic and Trump's visa bans.
We're going to cover all the details right now,
so please make sure you stay tuned until the very end,
and if you like my videos and have been enjoying
what I put forth on this channel,
please like, share, and subscribe.
Is it possible for the Biden administration
to push through immigration reform
by simply getting a majority in the Senate?
So far, the majority of immigration and reformation
proposals that have been put forth
by the Biden administration has been stopped short
in the Senate by Republicans who have voted in opposition.
But now the Senate Budget Committee is now proposing that
they could put millions of undocumented individuals,
including DACA recipients, TPS holders,
and other undocumented essential workers on a pathway
to citizenship without the support of Senate Republicans.
How is this possible?
On Tuesday, Senate Democrats approved a $3.5 trillion budget
agreement to be spent over the coming decade,
which includes $126 billion for undocumented immigrants
to be put on a pathway to citizenship.
What makes this different from previous attempts
at immigration reformation is that
it would be going through a process
called budget reconciliation.
This requires only a simple majority in Congress to pass.
That means that if the Biden administration
can get Senate Democrats to vote yes,
then it would pass through the Senate to become law.
There are actually a lot of immigration experts that believe
that this could work.
Representative Jesús Garcia has stated
that he refuses to support any large spending bill
that does not include a path to citizenship
for undocumented immigrants.
And Senator Alex Padilla says the strategy is realistic.
In addition, a coalition of pro-immigration groups
have also backed this effort
with a $50 million lobbying campaign.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
is pushing for Congress to vote on the budget
before they break in August for the recess.
If it passes, actual relief for millions of undocumented
immigrants would become a reality in a matter of months.
This is big news that took me quite some time to research
so that I can put this in this video.
So please do me a favor.
Leave me a comment, like this video, and subscribe today.
So what do I think about this?
What is my take on what will happen?
I am cautiously optimistic.
In reality it sounds like it is very realistic
to get all Democrats on board.
But what that means that if even one democratic senator
votes, no in opposition, then it is a no go.
We never know what sort of pressures
that a Democrat might be subject to near the end.
And we still have certain middle of the road Democrats
that are going to still be a hard sell on this.
Thus, it remains the job of Senate Majority Leader,
Chuck Schumer, to get all of the Democrats
in shape to vote yes, because we need it.
We need this to get done.
It is abundantly clear that Republicans will forever more
stand in the way of any reform for no reason
other than to simply oppose something
to save face in the era of Trump.
Surprisingly, the Senate Budget Committee's announcement
was not the only announcement today.
This week, the Department of Homeland Security
also announced a $52 billion budget designed
to expand the number of available visas
in an effort to reverse all of the Trump era policies
banning immigrant visas being issued,
and the backlog that has been built up
even further by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we've discussed many times before,
the combination of former president Trump's policies
and the COVID-19 pandemic,
has resulted in a visa backlog that has prevented hundreds
of thousands of immigrants from immigrating
to the United States to be with their families
or to work for employers.
In an effort to fix this,
the funding bill would allow unused visas from fiscal years
2020 and 2021 to remain available in the following year.
This will help the 55,000 winners of diversity visas
who are unable to finish processing
their applications during the pandemic.
It will also allow unused family sponsored and
employment-based visas
to continue to be available into 2022.
In addition, anyone who was denied entry
into the United States because of the Muslim ban
will have a visa made available to them
and an amendment will allow for an additional 64,716
H2B visas to become available.
Those are visas used for seasonal employees.
So have you been impacted by the visa backlog?
I know many of you have.
So go ahead and leave me a comment
and let us know what category you are waiting for
and how long you have been waiting.
And what's my take on all this?
I do think that all the government has to do
is just click a button, move some visa numbers around
and make more available.
They have the power to do this,
and I do hope that beyond just opening up more numbers
and allowing them to roll over into the next year,
they may even expand the total number of visas
available per year.
In case you missed it,
the Chamber of Commerce is also putting pressure
to the Biden administration to double the number
of employment-based visas available
and to increase the cap on H1B visas.
I will include a link to the video here
and I will continue releasing more videos
as more important news becomes available.
So if you haven't yet subscribed,
make sure to do so now and watch this next video.
I'll see you there.