Immigration Reform Bill Proposal Announced by President Biden

January 21, 2021

This post is about the immigration reform bill PROPOSED by President Biden. For information about Biden’s executive actions on immigration, click here. 

NOTE THIS IS A PROPOSED LAW AND NOT YET APPROVED

On Wednesday, January 20, Joe Biden became president of the United States. Just a few hours before he was sworn in as president, his team announced a proposed immigration bill. The bill, entitled “The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021,” will not immediately become law. Rather, it will be negotiated by and voted on by members of Congress. This process may take a long time, because the bill will need the support of the majority of the members of Congress in order to have enough votes for the bill to become the law.

If it were passed by Congress, what would Biden’s bill do?

Biden’s immigration bill is a proposal and some parts of it could change over the course of negotiations that take place to gain the votes in Congress needed. President Biden’s immigration bill currently proposes the following:

• Create a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were in the U.S. on January 1, 2021 or earlier and who have been paying taxes and meet other requirements. It is possible that this path would be available to some people deported on or after January 20, 2017, if they were in the U.S. for at least 3 years before their deportation.

• Allow permanent resident status for (1) people with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), (2) temporary protected status (TPS) holders, and (3) some immigrant farm workers.

• Eliminate the one-year filing deadline for asylum and make the asylum process faster.

• Make the family-based immigration process easier.

• Make it easier to get employment-based visas.

• Dedicate funds to Central American countries, to help fight against the difficult situations which cause many people to migrate to the U.S.

• …and more

Since the immigration bill will not be approved immediately, President Biden also announced several executive actions that he would take on the first day of his presidency as some first steps. These executive actions became effective from the moment they were signed. Click here to read more details about these executive actions and other policies.

We will share future updates on this website! And you can learn more about Biden’s immigration bill and his executive actions in this news article.

For more information and resources from the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) visit our website.