When President Joe Biden took office, he gave the immigrant rights community hope that his administration would be the one to move forward with establishing a pathway to citizenship for people illegally residing in the United States.
Now, four years into the Democratic administration and no progress on that front, immigrants are no better off than they were four years ago, according to immigration groups.
The incoming Biden administration proposed a serious bill but was unable to bring Democrats and Republicans in Congress together to offer legal status to more than 13 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.
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Although the Biden administration has put forth more than 600 actions on immigration, it has some explaining to do, even if its chances were doomed from the start, Migration Policy Institute senior fellow Muzaffar Chishti explained.
“He did not put a lot of political muscle behind that, but I’m not sure that that mattered,” Chishti said. “I think he was making a calculation that there is no appetite for this in Congress. So why use your political capital on something which is basically not going anywhere?”
Eric Ruark, research director at NumbersUSA immigration think tank in Washington, said while the Biden administration was not able to get a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, its policies supported an open-borders agenda in the short run.
“The Biden administration failed to pass any significant immigration legislation, however, its open-border policies and cessation of interior enforcement had far-reaching effects, allowing millions of inadmissible aliens to enter the United States, and to live and work here with impunity,” Ruark wrote in an email.
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False starts
Then-President George W. Bush had hoped to move on immigration reform legislation at the start of his first term in 2001 but was forced to refocus his administration’s agenda after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that year. Bills in 2006 and 2007 never got anywhere.
When combined with border security and enforcement measures in the past, such proposals have often been referred to as comprehensive immigration reform. Opponents prefer the word “amnesty” when discussing a pathway to citizenship or any large-scale legalization of undocumented immigrants.
The same attempts failed during former President Barack Obama’s two terms in office, as well as during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.
“For the last 20 years, since this century, any attempt at comprehensive immigration reform with a lot of support for it, both in the public and Congress, hasn’t happened,” Chishti said. “It didn’t happen under W [sic]. It didn’t happen under Obama. It didn’t happen under Trump, didn’t happen under Biden.”
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Biden takes office
Biden took office and immediately rescinded the Trump administration’s so-called Muslim ban, halted and later permanently canceled billions of dollars in funding for more than 300 miles of border wall projects, attempted to pause all deportations for 100 days, and more.
Biden vowed to introduce an immigration bill in his first 100 days. The White House-backed Democratic bill, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, was sent to Congress in January 2021.
The bill included an “earned road map” to citizenship for 11 million non-U.S. citizens illegally residing in the country. The bill states it will “improve the immigration courts,” expand family case management programs, and reduce immigration court backlogs, which top 2.2 million cases.
He focused on undoing the Trump agenda but did not spend much time uniting Congress over his immigration bill.
The legislation has received a cold reception from the GOP.
Republicans took control of the House and immediately became focused on legislation to quell a growing border crisis as opposed to coming to the table to negotiate major immigration reforms.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose district spans 40% of the miles along the U.S.-Mexico border, said Republicans were right to be focused on pressing issues.
“The Biden-Harris administration is responsible for the most disastrous border crisis in our nation’s history. We have a lot of messes to clean up when this administration finally leaves the White House,” Gonzales said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
The House passed a major border security bill, but Democrats in the Senate refused to take it up at a time that could have been perfect to combine the GOP border bill with Biden’s bill.
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As a down payment on his campaign vows to help immigrants, Chishti said Biden made an effort earlier this year when he announced in June the “parole in place” program that gives spouses of U.S. citizens the ability to apply for “parole-in-place” from the Department of Homeland Security, allowing them to be protected from deportation and the ability to work in the country legally.
“What Biden did at the end of his presidency was to appease the base, the Democratic base,” Chishti said.