By Cindy Carmaco, Andrea Castillo, Molly O’Toole | Los Angeles Times
During his first days in office, President-elect Joe Biden plans to send a groundbreaking legislative package to Congress to address the long-elusive goal of immigration reform, including what’s certain to be a controversial centerpiece: a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants who are in the country without legal status, according to immigrant rights activists in communication with the Biden-Harris transition team.
The bill also would provide a shorter pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of people with temporary protected status and beneficiaries of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals who were brought to the U.S. as children, and probably also for certain front-line essential workers, vast numbers of whom are immigrants.
“The Biden administration’s plan includes providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers as well as legal status for the more than 11 million undocumented foreign nationals currently living in the United States. Such sweeping immigration reform has not been seen for decades, and would be welcomed by immigrants and advocates alike.”
Darius Amiri, Rose Law Group Immigration Dept. Chair