Daily US Times: President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday vowed to send a bill to the Senate that would set up a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants.
Biden’s team has already indicated that he will attempt to overturn much of Trump administration’s immigration agenda, including rescinding the Remain in Mexico policy and reinstating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Mr Biden told NBC’s Lester Holt: “I will send an immigration bill to the United States Senate with a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people in America,”
Such a bill would likely be dead on arrival in the Senate if Republicans hold on to their majority in the upper chamber of the congress. Georgia senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are both facing runoffs on January 5, and if one of them wins, Republicans will hold 51 seats in the chamber.
However, if Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock both win the runoffs, the Senate will be tied 50-50, allowing vice president-elect Kamala Harris to serve as the tie-breaker.
Biden, who is about to swear in January 20, also plans to implement a 100-day freeze on deportations before reinstating Obama-era guidance that limits deportations to criminal offenders.
Once Biden takes the White House, his administration will likely be preoccupied with Covid-19 vaccine distribution and economic fallout from the pandemic. While the his administration will eventually attempt to overhaul Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, the process will still take time.
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