This week, the Biden Administration is pressing one of the most popular issues with voters of all backgrounds across the country: providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, farmworkers and other essential workers, and the broader undocumented community.
On Wednesday night, President Biden reaffirmed his commitment to bipartisan immigration reform and called on Congress to pass legislation in support of a pathway to citizenship urgently in order to “end our exhausting war over immigration.” The President emphasized what all Americans know to be true: “immigrants have done so much for America during the pandemic, as they have throughout our history.” Now can and must be the time for our leaders to deliver meaningful solutions on immigration policy.
Further demonstrating the Administration’s commitment to the issue, First Lady Jill Biden invited Texas DACA recipient and essential healthcare worker Javier Quiroz Castro as her personal guest to Wednesday’s address. Since the start of the pandemic, Javier has been working on the frontlines in one of Houston’s busiest hospitals – sacrificing his own safety, the safety of his wife, and the safety of their one-year-old daughter while taking care of his patients. Javier – along with more than five million other undocumented essential workers – is absolutely critical in our nation’s continued response and economic recovery from COVID-19. As the President has made clear, undocumented people are essential to our nation in every sense of the word. You can see Javier’s conversation with First Lady Jill Biden ahead of the Joint Address here.
On Thursday, Georgians supporting a pathway to citizenship, including several Dreamers, met with President Biden, welcoming him to the Peach State in commemoration of his first 100 days in office. The President met with FWD.us Georgia State Immigration Manager Jaime Rangel, Jennifer Zenteno, Raymond Partolan, Israel Arce Perez, and Cris Ramirez. Their discussion came just one day after the President’s Joint Address, where he recommitted on his promise to work with Congress and leaders at both state and federal levels to put morality and civility back into our immigration system and protect immigrants – which is incredibly significant to Georgian communities.
On Friday, Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh joined the “We Are Home” campaign, National Domestic Workers Alliance Executive Director Ai-jen Poo, advocates, and immigrant workers in a roundtable discussion to reiterate the Biden Administration’s commitment to immigration reform – particularly through the U.S. Citizenship Act, Farm Workforce Modernization Act and the Dream and Promise Act.
Additionally, a number of immigration advocacy organizations, including FWD.us, announced a $50 million campaign to promote support for legislation that would provide a pathway to citizenship. This comes as numerous pollsters have continued to find that this is smart politics in addition to sound policy. New polling from Garin-Hart-Yang/Global Strategy Group/LD Insights, as well as Anzalone List/Center Forward, Public Opinion Strategies (GOP) poll and Data For Progress all show that a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants remains incredibly popular with a range of 75% to 66% in support.
The Biden Administration is prioritizing immigration reform, centered on a pathway to citizenship for dreamers, TPS holders, farmworkers, and other undocmented immigrants because they know this is not only good policy, but good politics. It's long past time for our elected officials to get this done.