Legislation creates pathway to citizenship.
The Dream and Promise Act passed in the House of Representatives in a 228-197 vote on Thursday. The bill takes a piecemeal approach to immigration reform by providing certainty to undocumented individuals who were brought to the U.S. as children, and whose ability to go to school, get jobs, and even remain in the country has hung in the balance for decades.
The bill’s sponsor, Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard of California called it a “major step in ending the veil of fear and uncertainty that has plagued the lives of our Dreamers for far too long.”
But beyond assisting Dreamers, the legislation would also allow those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to apply for citizenship, a group from countries around the world that ranges from those fleeing civil unrest and natural disasters as early as the 1990s to Venezuelans deemed eligible for the status by the Biden administration earlier this month.
In total, the Dream and Promise Act would help naturalize nearly 4.5 million people.
The bill now moves to the Senate while in the House they take up another bill that would provide a citizenship pathway for migrant farmworkers, allowing seasonal farmworkers who have been traveling to the U.S. for work for a decade to apply for citizenship after another four years. That bill would provide citizenship to more than a million migrants.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For members of the Senate as they debate two bills that provide pathways to citizenship for Dreamers and seasonal farmworkers.
- For Customs and Border Protection agents and other U.S. officials continuing crisis at the southern border as migrants flood to the U.S.
- For protection for migrant children separated from their parents and held in U.S. facilities that are full.
Sources: The Hill, Roll Call
