The US House of Representatives approved immigration law that gives way to citizenship for “dreamers”

The United States House of Representatives on Thursday approved an immigration law which gives a path to citizenship for “dreamers”, the hundreds of thousands of young people who came to the country as minors.

The bill – backed by the White House – was approved by 228 votes in favor and 197 against in the House, where Democrats have a majority. Nine Republican lawmakers voted in favor.

Shortly after the adoption of a law for agricultural workers. Both laws are part of President Joe Biden’s pledges and were to pass the lower house, where Democrats have a majority.

However, both bills face a complicated prospect in the Senate., because they need the support of the Republicans at a time when the opposition denounces a crisis on the border with Mexico due to the increase in the arrivals of migrants.

This Thursday, the White House said the law to protect “dreamers” (dreamers) was “A decisive step on the road to providing much needed assistance to the millions of undocumented migrants who inhabit the United States.”

Biden had urged Congress in a tweet to find “long-term solutions” to create a “humane immigration system and address the root causes of immigration.” The president has promised to provide a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented migrants.

This law also envisages giving a path to citizenship for beneficiaries of Temporary Protection Status (TPS), a program that offers protection to people from countries suffering from armed conflicts, environmental disasters such as hurricanes or earthquakes or catastrophic situations such as epidemics. The country’s Venezuelan and Burmese citizens were the last to benefit from this measure.

The story of the “dreamers” has been full of advances and setbacks over the past decade, without ever reaching a solution in the legislature for these nearly 700,000 young people, mostly Latin Americans.

In 2012, Democratic President Barack Obama granted them protective status through an Executive Action that implemented Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an executive order that allowed them to study, work , to drive and to protect them from the threat of deportation.

But his Republican successor Donald Trump canceled that status, resulting in a long legal battle that ended in the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2020 against the way in which the president canceled this program.

The Obama decree has benefited some 700,000 young people, but currently millions of people would be eligible for this regularization.

“I am very excited that today the House is taking an important step to end the veil of fear and uncertainty that has plagued the lives of our dreamers for too long,” the sponsoring Democratic MP said ahead of the vote. . -Allard.

In contrast, Steve Scalise, Republican number two in the House of Representatives, urged his caucus to vote against the rule, saying it would “worsen the flow of illegals” to the United States. However, the Republican opposition to the farm workers bill is not unanimous. This was reflected in the final vote, which garnered 247 votes for and 174 against (currently, it is made up of 219 Democrats and 211 Republicans).

Washington Congressman Dan Newhouse said during the debate that the law creates jobs and a merit-based program for foreign farm workers. “It removes the incentives for illegal migration,” he said.

KEEP READING: