After suffering multiple setbacks in 2021, the effort by Democratic lawmakers and activists to grant a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants has been put on hold in 2022.
To help keep families together, and to pave the way to citizenship for nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants, then-candidate Joe Biden promised to work with Congress on a massive immigration reform bill in 2020.
The new Biden administration wasted little time in releasing a sweeping immigration proposal that would become the United States Citizenship Act of 2021.
Included in that plan was a fast track to citizenship in just eight years for illegal immigrants already in the country, as well as immediate green card eligibility for farmworkers, TPS, and DACA recipients.
The bill’s failure was predictable given the lack of Republican support for the bill’s minimal border security provisions in the midst of a growing crisis at the southern border that has not abated to this day. The bill included a number of other immigration-related measures.
Without the help of the Republicans, the Democrats hoped to pass the Build Back Better Act with amnesty provisions by using the budget reconciliation process, which would require only 50 votes to pass.
Many different ideas were proposed by Democrats, including a citizenship route for “essential workers” and the modernization of a registry that had not been updated in decades.
The Senate parliamentarian ruled that none of the proposed amendments were suitable for inclusion in the budget bill and therefore all were rejected.
At a later point, it was crucially important for West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin to publicly oppose amnesty without border security, and he ultimately withdrew his support for the package.
However, as we enter the second half of 2022, there has been no clear sign of a major push to get amnesty passed.
Notably, no immigration provisions were included in the climate and health care package that passed via budget reconciliation and was signed by President Biden earlier this month.
The Biden administration has made several immigration-related policy changes, such as an effort to streamline the asylum process, the creation of a path to citizenship for Afghan refugees, and this week’s expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Progressives on immigration issues recently met with White House staff.
According to Politico, the groups expressed concern that the “political environment has worsened” and that “time is running out” before November.
Time is of the essence, and our members have been waiting and pushing for permanent immigration relief while all of this has been going on,” the group said in a statement that was picked up by the outlet.
When it comes to immigration legislation, however, “the White House has been publicly silent.”
But Republicans haven’t shown much enthusiasm for an amnesty-based immigration deal.
The Republican leadership in the House has rejected amnesty, and senators who are usually amenable to compromise have said there’s no hope for a deal until the border crisis is resolved.
