This could be the year.
“This is the best chance we have,” Schumer told the Post. “We’re fighting every day to make it happen.”
In Schumer’s Brooklyn neighborhood, and in migrant communities across the U.S., hopes that Dems can deliver on immigration https://t.co/4DbjHVucFS
— Maria Sacchetti (@mariasacchetti) September 5, 2021
There’s so much needs to be fixed! From the Washington Post:
… The fates of approximately 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally are in the hands of the U.S. Senate, where Schumer is leading Democrats in a precarious bid to pass a budget that would introduce sweeping changes to health care, the tax code and education. And it would grant “lawful permanent status” to undocumented immigrants, putting them on the path to U.S. citizenship.
Schumer said in an interview that he hopes to cover as many undocumented immigrants as possible in the $3.5 trillion budget plan that Senate Democrats adopted last month. Lawmakers and legislative aides are furiously working to produce drafts of the bill for the caucus to review by Sept. 15.
“This is the best chance we have,” Schumer said. “We’re fighting every day to make it happen.”
The House passed a pair of bills in March that would have legalized millions of immigrants, but those measures had little hope in the Senate, where Republicans and Democrats are divided 50-50 and bills need 60 votes to pass. But the Senate can pass a budget bill with a simple majority, using an arcane legislative procedure called “reconciliation,” which must meet strict standards policed by the Senate parliamentarian and survive the political infighting that has already begun. The vice president breaks the tie.
Passage is far from assured, but Democrats unanimously adopted the budget plan hours after they voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and progressive Democrats say they will not vote for one without the other.
The Democrats’ budget resolution instructed the Senate Judiciary Committee to write legislation that would create a path to legal residency for “qualified” immigrants. Among those fighting to be included in that category, which has not been defined, are “dreamers,” who arrived in this country as children; immigrants with “temporary protected status” because of wars or disasters in their homelands; farmworkers; and the pandemic’s essential workers. Many have lived here for years, even decades.
“Schumer is the hombre. He’s the guy,” said Erik Villalobos, a communications manager for the National TPS Alliance, which represents thousands of immigrants with temporary protected status who are unable to apply for citizenship. “All this depends on him.”…
Schumer has been trying to pass an immigration bill since he helped to broker the last major amnesty in 1986, when he was a young congressman from Brooklyn sharing a cockroach-infested apartment on the Hill with another negotiator, then-Rep. Leon Panetta (D-Calif.). In part because of Schumer’s skill at reaching a compromise, Republicans and Democrats ultimately voted to grant legal residency to 2.7 million unauthorized immigrants and President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law…
Legal Permanent Residence: ‘This Could Be the Year’Post + Comments (166)