In anticipation of the 2022 midterm elections,
Republican and Democrat Senators have come together
in an attempt to pass immigration reform before the end of this year.
On March 15th, the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration
met on a hearing on the barriers to legal immigration, and they committed
during this meeting to pass immigration reform before the end of this year.
Keep watching because we are going to talk
about what immigration provisions are likely to be included and why
it is important to them to get this reform done before November of this year.
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So why is there currently a bipartisan effort to work together on immigration?
During the hearing on March 15th, Democratic and Republican Senators
on the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration met to discuss the barriers to
legal immigration and the need to overhaul and modernize the system.
Both sides expressed frustration at Congress's inability to pass
any changes to our immigration system.
Democrats are eager to pass immigration reform and deliver
on campaign promises, and Republicans recognize
that a lack of immigration reform is starting to hurt the US economy.
And there are now fears that if Republicans take power after the November
midterm elections, immigration hardliners will stop any attempts at reform.
So with pressure mounting to pass something before then, Senator Durbin,
who is in charge
of the immigration subcommittee, vowed to work with the Republican members
to come up with something they could put to a vote and pass by November.
I want to accept a challenge that Senator Cornyn has made.
Let's put a bill before this committee.
Let's see what elements we can agree on and put it before this committee.
So what immigration measures could potentially get passed
in this bipartisan effort?
There were five initiatives mentioned during the hearing that previously
received bipartisan support and are most likely to be considered.
The first is protection for Dreamers.
The DREAM Act was originally co-sponsored by Republican Lindsey Graham
and would provide a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 1.2
million immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
This is something Republicans have expressed an interest in passing,
including Senator Tillis in the recent committee meeting.
"You know, I, for one, would like for this to be the Congress where we address
the DACA population, that we also address some of these guest worker
programs and green card issues." If the DREAM Act cannot get enough votes,
there is the possibility of providing a limited pathway
to citizenship for just the 600,000+ current DACA participants.
The second issue that has support on both sides of the aisle
is recapturing unused employment based green cards.
Currently, there are 875,000 immigrants stuck in the employment based green card
backlog, and Congressional Research Services recently estimated that
without significant change, that could exceed 2
million by the year 2030.
In response to this, Republican and Democratic senators have proposed
the Preserving Employment Visas Act, which would recapture
unused visas from 2020 and 2021 and allow them to be used
in reducing this backlog as a way of helping the U.S.
economy.
A third initiative with broad support is green card recapture
for health care workers.
The Health Care Workforce Resilience Act was previously proposed
with bipartisan support
and would recapture as many as 40,000 unused employment
based green cards to be issued specifically to doctors and nurses.
Currently, many of these workers are employed
with H-1B visas, and the shortage of skilled health care workers during
the pandemic has incentivized Congress to provide a more permanent solution.
The fourth area with bipartisan support is providing a solution for children
who age out of their ability to get a green card through their parent's
application, often referred to as "Documented Dreamers."
The America's Children Act has been proposed with bipartisan support
and could lock in a child's age when they file
for a green card to prevent them from aging out of eligibility.
And the fifth initiative, which would be necessary in order
to secure Republican support for other immigration
provisions, is an effort to secure the southern border.
One package under consideration is the bipartisan border solutions Act.
This was proposed by a group of senators from both parties
and would establish new regional processing,
massively increase staff to manage the border
and grant additional resources for border processing.
What do you think?
Are there immigration provisions missing that you expected to see?
Leave me a comment below and let me know.
In order to pave the way for immigration reform to be done before the midterm
elections, President Biden has taken the first step and passed
a new asylum rule in order to address the border crisis.
I will include a link to that video here.
I will also continue to bring you additional immigration
news as it becomes available,
so if you haven't done so yet, subscribe and also turn on the notifications.
Click here to watch this video next and I'll see you there.