We're going to talk about the U S citizenship act of 2021. Joe Biden has been sworn in as the 46th
president of the United States and, uh, common law Horace made history, being the first woman
vice-president and women of color as well in that position. So a very exciting time. Uh, but we
have a lot of things to talk about with respect to immigration. We're going to hit the ground running
while they're hitting the ground running. Okay. On day one with some major action around immigration,
and I want you guys to be patient with me. I'm going to be breaking down the proposals over
a series of videos. Some sessions will be live some sessions, some will be prerecorded videos,
but just stay plugged in on McBean immigration TV in particular on YouTube
so that you don't miss any of my broadcast. Now I'm in this one, we're only going to focus on
the U S citizenship act of 2021. And that's the immigration reform bill.
We have a lot more details about it, and it's been sent from my, to my knowledge to Congress.
And so I'm going to pull up a four page document that the Biden people released just this morning
to the press. And it provides details about what's in this bill. Once I have the actual bill in front
of me, which I understand is hundreds of pages long, I will definitely, um, break it down for you
some more. But right now I, I have a lot of information to share with you about
this bill. And this is the bill that covers that covers that's M that covers the amnesty or the
pathway to citizenship for undocumented individuals here in the United States.
And it includes a host of other things. We're going to get into it, share this session,
share this video with your feed right now, so that more people can get information about
this immigration reform bill. It's actually a massive bill and there's a lot
of things in it. And so let's just go right into it, share this again with other people and, um,
let's get into it. Okay. So this is the fact sheet that was re uh, that was released just
this morning about the bill. And again, it's the U S citizenship act of 2021.
And let's jump down to the first big section of the act of the bill. The first section is to P
is the amnesty section. Okay. And I know that people don't like the use of the word amnesty,
but it is a word that, um, that, that, that we all know this to beat. So that's what this is.
And so here's what the amnesty section or the pathway to citizenship section says,
create an, an earned roadmap to citizenship for undocumented individuals. And what it does is, uh,
individuals will be able to apply for temporary legal status with the ability
to apply for green cards after five years, if they pass criminal and national security
background checks and pay their taxes. Okay. So I'm going to pause right here. And
actually I'm going to jump down to the other section, which says, applicants must be physically
present in the United States on or before January 21st. And then it also says after three years,
after three years, all green cart, all green card holders who pass additional background checks
and demonstrate knowledge of English and us civics can apply to become citizens.
Okay. So quick breakdown. So if you're for, if you're an undocumented individual who was in
the United States on or before January 1st, 2021, um, this applies to you. Okay, very broadly based
on this, uh, summary that the Biden team gave us, it applies to you. And so what it will do is it
will enable you to apply for a temporary legal status. And with that status, if it's granted,
it's a legal status, it's temporary. Okay. And with that legal status, you're then able
to also get a work permit and a travel document as well, because that's what normally comes with
the legal status, although it's temporary. So you have that temporary legal status for
five years. And then at the end of that five years, you're then able to apply for the green
card. But at that point, the government will do another background, check on you to make sure
everything's good in your background. And you're still eligible. You're eligible for a green card.
So they're going to do that check then. And they're going to be looking at some other
things too, whether you've been paying taxes. Okay. And you would be paying your taxes,
using your social security card and numb number. I should say that you will get as part of the work
authorization process. So they're going to do that check at the end of that five-year period.
You pass that check and you get that green card. And then after getting the green card,
now you wait another three years as a green card holder to then apply for citizenship.
So it's an eight year pathway to us citizenship. And so they're taking it in
phases. They're not just giving you the green card, but they are going to give the green card
to certain people. And here's what it says, uh, with regard to dreamers and TPS holders,
temporary protected status holders, and immigrant farm workers who meet certain requirements,
they are eligible for green cards immediately under the legislation. So they would get a green
card immediately. And this is massive. This is huge because we, for example, have clients who
have TPS and they've been waiting years for the ability to get a green card and all of these legal
stuff tied them up. And under this legislation, they would be eligible automatically for a green
card. So that is tremendous. If you like what I'm sharing in this video, give me some hearts, give
me some thumbs up and, uh, let's keep going. Here's another big part of this, um, immigration
reform bill. Uh, it says there is a waiver. There's a waiver attached to this guys
for those who were deported under Trump, under his administration. It says the secretary of
the department of Homeland security may waive the presence requirement for those deported on
or after January 20th, 2017, who were physically present for at least three years prior to removal.
Okay. And so there's that element that's in there. And then the other piece is they're going to tweak
the laws a little and remove the word alien from our laws and replace it with non-citizen.
Okay. It makes them feel good to do that part, but it doesn't impact you right now. What impacts you
the most is the eye. The fact that this enables you, who've been here tied up for all these years
without a legal status. It enables you to be able to get, become a legal and not
feel like a second class person. You can step up, you have temporary legal
status. If this goes through this passes, you have status here and you can travel. You can work
freely and, um, then apply for that green card. Okay, let's go on. Additionally, in this, um, the
immigration reform bill, it focuses on Claritin backlogs, recapturing unused visas, eliminated
lengthy wait times, uh, increased per country, visa caps. And then it also eliminates a, the
three and 10 year bars, which is, is an interest in one. It eliminates the bars and then
it explicitly writes into the regulations that, uh, it includes permanent partnerships, uh,
with respect to those who are LGBTQ and their families. So it creates that permanent partnership
with which allows those individuals to be eligible for a green card. Okay. And then it
says the bill also, all the bill allows immigrants with approved family sponsorship petitions to join
your family in the us on a temporary basis while they wait for green cards to become available.
Did guys just hear what I just said? Okay. They said that, uh, under this legislation,
if you had applied for a green card through your relative and you're out of the United States
weighed in this will allow you to come here on a temporary status and wait for your green card
here in the us, rather than in Guyana, China, wherever you are, right. Singapore, you know,
Italy, Philippines, it allows you to come here and wait with your family. So that's big.
Okay. Let's get back to it. The other thing that is part of this immigration reform act is
it re it eliminates the ability of a future president. I don't think this one, I don't know
if this is going to work, but it eliminates, um, a future president from issuing another travel ban
based on religion and all of that, it's, it creates a no ban act that prohibits
discrimination based on religion, and it limits presidential authority to issue future beds.
That's a big one. I don't know how they're going to pull that one off because another president can
certainly come in with, through executive order ability and create certain bands. And we've seen
how the Supreme court has upheld those travel ban. So that's one thing. The other thing is, uh,
this bill also increased diversity visas to 80,000 from 55,000 for those. So it allows more people to
come in under the diversity visa lottery program, um, under this proposal. Okay. Let's keep going.
There's a lot of good stuff in here. Um, then there's some things in here with regard to the
employment base visa backlog, they're looking to Clair the employment base backlog visa backlog,
also reduce lengthy, wait times, and some other stuff I'm going to jump down to. Um,
then they have this other section about improving employment verification process. Let's get to
some other stuff here, uh, there. Okay. This is interesting. I think
so deploy technology to expedite screening and enhance the ability to identify narcotics and
other contraband at every land, air and sea port of entry. So they want to use more technology to,
to, to fight, to find or track or identify those who are involved in drug smuggling across our
borders, which is important. And I like that. I like that. Um, it also authorizes and provides
funding for plans to improve infrastructure at ports of entry, uh, to enhance, um, the ability
to process asylum seekers. Okay. Uh, and detect interdict disrupt and prevent narcotics
from entering the U S um, then it also says the bill provides funding for training and
continued education to, um, to their agents. Okay. What, what, what does it say about how it impacts
real people? Um, so they're going to cry. They want to crack down on criminal organizations.
Okay. So they expand, they're going to be expanding anti-gang task forces in central
America. And then here's an interesting section that's titled addressing the root causes of
migration from central America. And essentially what they're saying here is they want $4
billion to be sent for a billion dollars. Okay. To address the underlying causes of migration in
the central America region included increase in assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Um, so I don't know that sounds to me like they want to send money to, to those countries. Um,
so, uh, there's that the bill also, re-instituted the central American minors program to reunite
children with their relatives and that's important and creates a central American family
reunification parole program to more quickly unite families with, um, their sponsor, uh, those who
with approved family sponsorship petitions. The other thing that they're going to
focus on with this is, um, the courts. Okay. Um, reducing the immigration court backlogs,
trained in new judges and proven technology in courts. And so we're talking about money there.
That's what that is all about the allocation of resources. And then, uh, I think this is the
last part. Yeah. Finally, the bill eliminates and this I thought was big eliminates the one
year filing deadline for asylum claims. Okay. It also increases protections for U visa T visa and
vowel applicants, including raising the cap on new visas from 10,000 to 30,000. So it allows more,
um, humanitarian, uh, folks, more humanity, visas available for humanitarian, um, petitions. Um, and
so yet it would also eliminate the one-year filing deadline for asylum seekers. So that's the, so
that's the, the act, okay. The U S citizenship act of 2021. It's massive. And we're going to break it
down for you in more detail, but in, in essence, um, this is very ambitious and we're going to see
how it's being treated on Capitol Hill. Okay. And someone is asking, well, will
immigration move faster? Will the process move faster than before? And so according to this bill,
they want to address those problems in the system so that you guys wouldn't have to wait so long
and they want to bring families here to wait while their VI, their green cards are being processed.
So that's huge. Okay. So there's that. And so I, um, again, share this video with other people. I'm
going to break these things down, these issues down for you over the next few days as I get
the information. And then also I'm going to do another video, a video about the executive order.
Okay. Trump is not Trump. Oh my God. Did I say that? Oh, I did not mean to say Trump. Trump
is not signing any executive order today. President Biden is signing executive orders
involved in immigration. So I'm going to do a second
video today on that topic. So stay tuned for that. Um, guys, the family immigration ban,
I've been getting a lot of questions about that, about that presidential proclamation that's, uh,
supposed to expire on March 31st, 2021. I've I haven't seen anything yet. I don't know if it's
included in the executive order. Um, from today, I've got to get that information.
And when I get that information, I'll be sure to inform you guys accordingly. All right. But this
is a good day. There's hope there's optimism. There's change in the air. Okay. So guys, thank
you for watching this lot, being with me in this live session, and I'll see you in the next one.