Biden immigration plan opposed by GOP, conservative groups
WASHINGTON— Republican lawmakers and conservative groups opposed President- elect Joe Biden's forthcoming immigration plan Tuesday as massive amnesty for people in the U.S. illegally, underscoring that the measure will face an uphill fight in a Congress that Democrats control just narrowly.
In a further complication, several pro-immigration groups said they would press Bid en togo even further and take steps such as an immediate moratorium on deportations, detentions and new arrests. Their demands indicated the pressures Biden would face from his party's liberal wing as four years of President Donald Trump's restrictive and often harsh immigration policies come to an end.
“It simply wouldn't have happened without us,” Lorella Praeli, co- president of t he liberal group Community Change, said of Biden's victory .“So we a reno win a powerful position.”
Biden plans to introduce the legislation shortly after being inaugurated Wednesday, a move he hopes will spotlight his emphasis on an issue that's defied major progress in Congress since 1986.
Sen. Chuck Sc hum er, D-N. Y ., who will become Senate majority leader this week, said Trump's impeachment trial, confirmation of Bi den's Cabinet nominees and more COVID- 19 relief will be the chamber's top initial priorities. He called an immigration overhaul “a very high priority” and said he was studying Biden's proposal and “I look forward to working together with him” — a choice of words that might suggest changes could be needed for it to pass Congress.
Bid en' s proposal would create an eight-year pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants, set up a processing program abroad for refugees seeking admission to the U.S. and push toward using technology to monitor the border. The measure was described by an official from Biden's transition team who described the plan on condition of anonymity.
With an eye toward discouraging a surge of immigrants toward the U.S .- Mexico boundary, the package's route to citizenship would only apply to people already in the U.S. by this past Jan. 1. But it omits the traditional tradeoff of dramatically enhanced border security that's helped attract some GOP support in the past, which drew criticism on Tuesday.
“It' s am ass amnesty for almost the entire population of illegal immigrants living in the United States — people who broke our laws to get here and stay here,” said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He added, “A mass amnesty with no safeguards and no strings attached is a nonstarter.”
“There are many issues I think we can work cooperatively with President- elect Biden, but a blanket amnesty for people who are here unlawfully isn't going to be one of them,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is often a central player in Senate immigration battles.
That view was shared by Mark Krikorian, executive director of the cons er vative Center for Immigration Studies, which favors curbing immigration.
“Past proposals at l east accepted the concept of turning off the faucet and mopping up the overflow. This is nothing but mopping up and letting the faucet continue to run,” Krikorian said.
The top lobbyist for Numbers-USA, which also wants to limit immigration, agreed that without changes, the measure seemed destined to receive little if any GOP support.