Cárdenas Statement on Congress’s Bicameral Immigration Bill
The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 is a bold plan that restores fairness and humanity to the American immigration system
WASHINGTON, DC –Today, Congress unveiled the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 – a massive overhaul to the American immigration system that restores fairness, humanity to the system, strengthens families, boosts our economy, bolsters national security, and opens a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. This bold, inclusive immigration bill was introduced by Congresswoman Linda T. Sánchez (CA-38) and U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ). Congressman Tony Cárdenas (CA-29) is an original cosponsor of the bill.
“After four years of Trump’s anti-immigrant and xenophobic administration, it is heartening to have a president in the White House who leads with compassion,” said Congressman Cárdenas. “President Joe Biden stuck by the promise he made to me and many of my colleagues that in the first 100 days of his administration, he would partner with Congress to overhaul our broken immigration system. For years, fixing our unfair immigration system has been a tertiary legislative issue in Congress’s priority items when it should have been among the top of the list. Immigrants are an important part of our society and vital to America’s economic success. Many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows are frontline workers treating patients, feeding America, and keeping essential services running during this pandemic. Continuing the immigration status quo is a disservice to American immigrants, citizens, and hurts the American economy. I’m proud to support the immigration plan that will finally pave a pathway to citizenship for the millions of Dreamers and undocumented Americans.”
In 2017, immigrant households earned $1.5 trillion and contributed $405 billion in state and local taxes and nearly $224 billion in federal taxes. In 2017, immigrants made up almost 30 percent of all new entrepreneurs in the United States.
The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 establishes a moral and economic imperative and a vision of immigration reform that is expansive and inclusive:
- Creates an earned roadmap to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants, providing Dreamers, TPS holders, and some farmworkers with an expedited three-year path to citizenship, and giving all other undocumented immigrants who pass background checks and pay taxes with an eight-year path to citizenship without fear of deportation.
- Reforms family-based immigration system to keep families together by recapturing visas from previous years to clear backlogs, including spouses and children of green card holders as immediate family members, and increasing per-country caps for family-based immigration. It also eliminates discrimination facing LGBTQ+ families, provides protections for orphans, widows and children, allows immigrants with approved family-sponsorship petitions to join family in the U.S. on a temporary basis while they wait for green cards to become available.
- Grows our economy by making changes to the employment-based immigration system, eliminating per-country caps, making it easier for STEM advanced degree holders from U.S. universities to stay, improving access to green cards for workers in lower-wage industries, and giving dependents of H-1B holders work authorization, and preventing children of H-1B holders from aging out of the system. The bill also creates a pilot program to stimulate regional economic development and incentivizes higher wages for non-immigrant, high-skilled visas to prevent unfair competition with American workers.
- Increases fundings for immigrant integration initiatives and supports state and local governments, NGOs, and other community organizations that conduct inclusion programs, provide English language assistance, and make available naturalization resources to immigrant communities.
- Protects workers from exploitation and improves the employment verification process by requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor to establish a commission involving labor, employer, and civil rights organizations to help improve the employment verification process and granting workers who suffer serious labor violations greater access to U visa relief.
- Supports asylum seekers and other vulnerable populations by eliminating the one-year deadline for filing asylum claims, reducing asylum application backlogs, increasing protections for U visa, T visa, and VAWA applicants, including by raising the cap on U visas from 10,000 to 30,000.
The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 also addresses the root causes of migration and prioritizes U.S. national security:
- Addresses the root causes of migration from Central America by funding the President’s four-year plan to increase assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras conditioned on their ability to reduce the corruption, violence, poverty, and famine that now causes people to flee.
- Creates safe and legal channels for people to seek protection, so they can apply for legal status in Central America instead of making the dangerous journey north. The bill also re-institutes the Central American Minors program to reunite children with U.S. relatives and creates a Central American Family Reunification Parole Program to more quickly unite families with approved family sponsorship petitions.
- Cracks down on bad actors by enhancing the ability to prosecute individuals involved in smuggling, narcotics and trafficking networks who are responsible for drugs flowing into our country and the exploitation of migrants. It will also expand transnational anti-gang task forces in Central America.
- Improves the immigration courts and protects vulnerable individuals by expanding family case management programs, reducing immigration court backlogs, expanding training for immigration judges, and improving technology for immigration courts. It also restores fairness and balance to our immigration system by providing judges and adjudicators with discretion to review cases and grant relief to deserving individuals, and also gives funding for school districts educating unaccompanied children.
- Modernizes and manages the border effectively through the use of technology that enhances our ability to detect contraband and counter transnational criminal networks since illicit drugs are most likely to be smuggled through legal ports of entry. It also authorizes and provides funding for plans to improve infrastructure at ports of entry to enhance the ability to process asylum seekers and detect, interdict, disrupt and prevent narcotics from entering the United States.
- Protects border communities by providing for additional rescue beacons to prevent needless deaths along the border, requiring agent training and oversight to investigate criminal and administrative misconduct, and requiring department-wide policies governing the use of force. It also authorizes and provides funding for DHS, in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and nongovernmental experts, to develop guidelines and protocols for standards of care for individuals, families, and children in CBP custody.
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