Immigration reform is one of the issues front and center for the new Biden administration. The Washington Post report that the new president will introduce a new initiative on his first day in office that will include an 8 year pathway to citizenship for immigrants without status and an expansion of refugee admissions. The Post writes:
The centerpiece of the plan from Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris is the eight-year pathway, which would put millions of qualifying immigrants in a temporary status for five years and then grant them a green card once they meet certain requirements, such as a background check and payment of taxes. They would be able to apply for citizenship three years later.
To qualify, the Post writes, immigrants must have been in the U.S. by January 1 so as to avoid a rush to the border.
Biden wants to change the refugee and asylum systems “back to a more humane and orderly process,” the official said. But “it’s also been made clear that that isn’t a switch you flip overnight from the 19th to the 20th, especially when you’re working with agencies and processes that have been so gutted by the previous administration,” the Post reports.
Biden has stressed in the past that he would end construction on Donald Trump’s border wall.
