IMMIGRATION: 1.7M in Texas may see path to citizenship under reform plan
WASHINGTON — Just after being sworn in on Wednesday, President-elect Joe Biden plans to propose a major immigration overhaul that would offer a pathway to citizenship to up to 1.7 million Texans who are in the country without legal authorization.
The proposal, which Biden is expected to send to Congress on his inauguration day, would create an eight-year path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., more than 500,000 of whom live in Harris and Bexar counties, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Those who
qualify would be granted a green card after five years and could apply for citizenship three years later.
The plan would create a faster track for those protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — more than 106,000 Texans as of June — and with temporary protected status, who could apply immediately for a green card.
The move positions immigration reform as a top priority for the new president, beyond tackling the coronavirus, for which Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion relief package. Democrats’ slim control of Congress, meanwhile, puts a spotlight on Texas Republicans, especially U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who campaigned last year on his support for the DACA program.
Democrats control the House, where a majority could pass Biden’s proposal, but they will need to build support from at least 10 Republican senators for it to get to Biden’s desk.
Immigration advocates have cheered the proposal and some experts say they’re more optimistic than they’ve been in years about the prospects of such a comprehensive overhaul. Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are determined to pass it, said U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio.
“We’re fully committed to immigration reform as a top legislative priority,” Castro said. “His plan reflects our nation’s highest values and the overwhelming consensus of the American people. A path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants is a moral and economic imperative.” Still, a deal on immigration has eluded Congress for decades and Biden’s proposal was already drawing resistance from the Senate’s most conservative members on Tuesday. U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri stopped an effort to fasttrack Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, citing the president-elect’s “amnesty plan for 11 million immigrants.”
Cornyn, meanwhile, said as recently as this summer that he had given up on comprehensive reform, calling at the time for incremental action on issues such as DACA.
“In the entire time I’ve been in the Senate, when we try to do comprehensive immigration reform, we fail,” Cornyn said in June. “We have a perfect record of failure when it comes to comprehensive immigration reform.”
DACA especially may be a motivating factor for those, including Cornyn, who have called for Congress to codify the program, which he says he supports, even though he was critical of President Barack Obama’s executive action to establish it.
The U.S. Supreme Court this summer blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to end the program, but did not rule on whether it is constitutional. A separate Texas-led lawsuit challenging DACA is now before Andrew Hanen, a conservative federal district court judge in Houston who has said he believes the program, as enacted by Obama, is unconstitutional.
Charles Foster, an immigration attorney in Houston who advised Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama on the issue, said Biden’s proposal looks a lot like those offered by both of those predecessors. But the politics around the issue have changed significantly in recent years as Trump campaigned on his administration’s crackdown on immigration.
The Biden proposal is expected to also allow more refugees to come to the United States, while calling for an increased reliance on technology to protect the southern border, a shift away from Trump’s signature effort to build a wall.
Foster said the path to legal status for unauthorized immigrants is the most important piece of the proposal and would have the biggest effect on Texas, home to 16 percent of the nation’s unauthorized immigrant population. Though it would offer a path to citizenship for many, Foster said historically only about a third of immigrants eligible to apply for citizenship have done so.
The proposal would be a “net plus” for the state’s economy, Foster said. A Rice University study last year estimated that for every $1 the Texas government spends on people living in the state illegally, the state brings in $1.21 in tax revenue.
Foster said there is reason for some optimism about the proposal’s chances. Biden spent decades in the Senate and may have better luck than most convincing some of his former colleagues to support the legislation.
Foster said he was also optimistic Cornyn would be among the Republicans who might support the effort.
Still, he said, “I’ve been burned many times telling people it would pass.”
Critics have questioned Cornyn’s commitment to passing legislation to protect so-called Dreamers, pointing out that he said Trump was right to end the program in 2017, saying at the time that Congress should act on the matter.
Cornyn voted against standalone DACA bills in 2007 and 2010. In 2018 — as Republican whip, responsible for rounding up votes for legislation — Cornyn said any citizenship concessions would have to include cuts to family migration and the diversity visa lottery in order to pass the Senate.
Other immigration advocates are less optimistic about Republican support. They say even if the full package doesn’t pass, it’s still a significant marker of where Biden wants to go on immigration during his term.
“It’s a big deal that he’s saying this is where Democrats stand, this is our goal and we’re not going to stop until we achieve it,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of the immigrant rights group America’s Voice.
Sharry said the legislative package isn’t all or nothing, however, and immigration advocates will accept piecemeal progress through whatever means Biden can achieve — whether it’s slipping a path to citizenship for so-called “Dreamers” into other legislative agreements, such as coronavirus relief packages, or taking executive action to undo Trump’s restrictions.
He pointed to polling showing a big majority of Americans support a path to citizenship. A 2019 Gallup poll found 81 percent support.
“We used to negotiate with Republicans on a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform approach, but the Republicans — personified perhaps best by John Cornyn — always asked for way too much in concessions and delivered way too few in Republican votes,” Sharry said. “We’re not falling for that trick again.”
Among those likely to oppose the effort is U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who Foster said is a case study in how the politics around immigration have changed. Foster worked with Cruz on Bush’s immigration policies during the former president’s 2000 campaign.
But Cruz has since emerged as one of the Senate’s biggest immigration hawks. In July, the Texas Republican blocked an effort by Senate Democrats to pass legislation creating a pathway to citizenship for so-called “Dreamers,” which he called an attempt at offering “amnesty” to those who entered the country illegally.
“Today’s Democratic Party — their priority is on people here illegally and not on American workers,” Cruz said at the time.