President Joseph R. Biden had a busy first day in office. Alongside a slew of executive orders and memorandums, he proposed new immigration legislation, celebrated by undocumented students and their advocates.
If passed, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 would offer an eight-year pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. It would allow them to apply for temporary legal status followed by a green card five years later. Three years after that, eligible green card holders could become citizens.
The legislation could also provide immediate access to green cards for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects people brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allows them to legally work in the country.
This is “very popular policy,” said Dr. Daniel I. Morales, associate professor of law and George A. Butler Research Professor at the University of Houston Law Center. “Most Americans believe long-term undocumented immigrants should be granted a right to stay.”
In addition to the proposed bill, Biden issued an executive order yesterday calling on the Department of Homeland Security to ensure protections for DACA recipients.
The order signals that preserving the DACA program is a priority for the executive branch, unlike the previous administration, which only reinstated DACA after ending the program in 2017 because of a Supreme Court order, Morales said.
Biden also came out with an executive order on advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government, which calls for an equity assessment of federal agencies, among other measures.
