House Democrats continue to advance the “People’s Agenda.” Today the House will vote on H.R. 6, The Dream and Promise Act of 2019. House Democrats poised to approve bill to give DREAMers pathway to citizenship:
The US House of Representatives is poised to pass a bill that would give permanent citizenship to 2.5 million undocumented immigrants. Like most of the rest of the Democratic agenda, it’s likely headed to [the Grim Reaper] Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s dustbin graveyard.
House Democrats’ Dream and Promise Act, introduced in March, is an attempt to give a pathway to citizenship to two major groups of immigrants whose legal status President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened: unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the US as children (known as DREAMers) and immigrants with temporary humanitarians protections.
“Dreamers and those with TPS (Temporary Protected Status) and DED (Deferred Enforced Departure) status are contributing to our country and to our economy, and deserve to have certainty that they will be able to stay with their families in the place they call home,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer wrote in a Dear Colleague letter to the Democratic caucus this week.
Even though a number of Republicans support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) that protects DREAMers currently, the broad nature of this bill will make it a tough sell in the U.S. Senate, especially with the 2020 election looming. Immigration has been the basis of many of the worst fights between Trump and Congress, giving McConnell little incentive to bring a bill up in the Senate.
And even though Democrats have made creating a pathway to citizenship for DACA and TPS recipients one of their top priorities, the much harder work of comprehensive immigration reform is yet to come. Opposing Trump is the easy part, and the president’s hardline policies have had a uniting effect on Democrats. But drafting a plan that also tackles border security and could get the Senate — not to mention the president — on board will prove far more challenging.
What’s in the Dream and Promise Act
The Dream and Promise Act is essentially a more expansive version of the mainstay Democratic immigration bill the DREAM Act. While that bill covered mostly DREAMers, it did not address immigrants covered by Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED).
As Vox’s Dara Lind explained, the DREAM Act would have covered about 1.5 million immigrants; House Democrats’ latest version extends that by about 1 million people.
TPS recipients largely come from three countries: El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti. Many of them have been living and working in the United States for decades, after fleeing their home countries due to natural disasters or political unrest. DED, meanwhile, mostly covers Liberian immigrants.
As Lind explained, all three groups of immigrants would eventually be allowed to apply for permanent legal status in the US under Democrats’ plan. But it would happen through different pathways and be a bit easier for humanitarian protectees:
DREAMers would have to demonstrate more things in order to get a green card, no matter if they were already in DACA. They would first have to apply for something called “conditional permanent residency,” which would only be granted under certain conditions.
As Lind laid out in her piece, the requirements include:
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- They would need to have arrived in the US before turning 18 and have been in the US for at least four years.
- They would need a relatively clean record — a felony conviction or three separate misdemeanors involving total jail time of 90 days would be disqualifying.
- They would need a high school diploma or GED, or to be enrolled in a program to get either one.
- Finally, they would need to pass a background check and other eligibility requirements.
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This “conditional status” designation would last for 10 years. But there would be other ways for DREAMers to be able to apply for a green card at any time, including serving in the military for two years, working for three years, or getting a degree from an institution of higher education (or be at least two years through a bachelor’s or technical program).
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House Democrats’ bill is largely symbolic; all they can do is hope a Democrat gets elected to the White House in 2020, before they must start crafting a much bigger immigration bill.
“We’re sending out to members the different parts of a comprehensive bill that we think should be included, but the timeline obviously is a lot further out,” Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Joaquín Castro (D-TX) told Vox in March. “First, we’re going to get to the DREAM Act and TPS.”
The Party of Trump aka the “mass deportation party,” would simply round up the children of undocumented immigrants and deport them to a country many of them have never known or have no memory of.
DACA, TPS, and DED holders and their families need your help today. Make a call at (202) 224-3121 and tell your representative to vote against the Republican motion to recommit and for the Dream and Promise Act.
UPDATE: The House approved the bill on a vote of 237-187 with only 7 Republicans joining Democrats in support. Cheers and chants of ¡sí, se puede! broke out in the chamber as the House of Representatives passed the Dream and Promise Act on Tuesday. Passage by the House marks the first time in a decade that the chamber has passed permanent protections for undocumented immigrant communities.
“Today on the floor of this House, we have the opportunity to be part of history,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before today’s vote. “To be on the right side of history. But more importantly, to be on the right side of the future by voting and recognizing the value of Dreamers to that future.”
Arizona Delegation: Yeah: Gallego, Grijalva, Kirkpatrick, O’Halleran, Stanton; Nay: Biggs, Gosar, Lesko, Schweikert.