Dems’ bills face GOP roadblocks
WASHINGTON – A month after President Joe Biden unveiled his immigration reform legislation, the bill faces roadblocks in Congress amid Republican criticism of a surge of unaccompanied migrant children at the border and fading of GOP support for Biden’s plan.
Biden promised to undo former President Donald Trump’s hard-line policies and to implement a gentler system. But Biden faces opposition from Republicans in his quest to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, and a worsening situation on the southern border has opened him up to attack from Republicans.
In the absence of Republican support for a comprehensive package, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is set to pass two bills this week to create a shorter process to legal status for agriculture workers and recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Both pieces of legislation are portions of Biden’s broader immigration plan, which includes an eightyear pathway to citizenship for nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants and deploying technology to patrol the border.
But even the smaller immigration bills face long odds in the evenly divided Senate.
Lawrence Jacobs, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said Biden is “politically boxed in.”
Progressives “are pressing Biden to make due on his campaign promises for a more humane immigration policy,” he explained. “The desperate surge along the southern border for security offers Republicans a much-needed line of attack after being on the defensive for months.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., led a group of progressive House Democrats Monday in urging the Biden administration to end its ICE contracts with state, local, and county prisons.
“We must truly sever the financial incentives causing the expansion of an unnecessary and abuse-ridden system of mass incarceration. Now is our chance to stop this abusive system from causing more unnecessary harm,” Omar said.