Dear friends, members and supporters,
Yesterday was truly an historic day! After four years of stress and anxiety, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief as we now have a presidential administration that not only values the wellbeing of immigrants and refugees, but made them a day one priority.
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President Biden plans to send a bill to Congress that will provide a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in the United States without permanent status. We expect that the bill will:
- Provide an eight year path to citizenship (five years for permanent residence with a three year waiting period for naturalization) and an expedited path for DACA recipients, TPS holders, and farmworkers.
- Eliminate the three- and ten-year bars on reentry.
- Reduce green card backlogs.
- Eliminate country caps on visas.
- Provide expedited paths to green cards for children and spouses of permanent residents.
- Provide funding to promote integration and citizenship.
- Ensure counsel for children and vulnerable populations facing deportation.
- Make much needed improvements to employment-based immigration.
- Eliminate the use of the dehumanizing term “alien” in immigration laws.
You can learn more about the bill and its impacts for Massachusetts here. President Biden also delivered on many of his promises and took immediate action on immigration policy yesterday, including:
- Ending Trump’s travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries.
- Reversing Trump’s plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census reapportionment count and taking steps to ensure the count is accurate and equitable.
- Pausing deportations for certain non-citizens in the U.S. for 100 days and outlining new enforcement priorities.
- Stopping new enrollments in the Migrant Protection Protocols (Remain in Mexico) policy.
- Overturning Trump’s executive order that pushed aggressive efforts to find and deport unauthorized immigrants.
- Instructing the Department of Homeland Security Secretary to take action to preserve and fortify DACA. Read more about how local DACA recipients feel about this news here.
- Halting Trump’s border wall construction.
- Blocking deportations of Liberians who have been living in the U.S.
You can read MIRA’s full statement on President Biden’s first day here.
Never before has a presidential administration made such a profound commitment to immigrant and refugee communities on day one. The bill President Biden sent to Congress is the most progressive piece of day one immigration legislation in history. This progress is all thanks to the tireless advocacy and organizing efforts of MIRA, our members, and our partners across the commonwealth and the nation. Thank you.
Our work is far from over – there is still much to be done at the local, state and federal levels to reverse the harm of the past four years and move forward with a long term commitment to building an immigration system that is just and empathetic. Will you support MIRA’s advocacy in this new chapter of hope by making a contribution today?
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With deep appreciation,
Eva Millona
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