Democratic members of Congress are counting on ambitious spending legislation to pass immigration reform. The bill includes permanent residency for qualified immigrants through a process called budget reconciliation.
The budget resolutions call on lawmakers to create a pathway to citizenship for millions of people while increasing border security. The legislation provides “lawful permanent status for qualified migrants” rather than defining which groups would be covered. According to the bill’s summary, millions of immigrants will be granted green cards.
Black immigrants that hold Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals “DACA”, Temporary Protected Status “TPS” and in Deferred Enforced Departure “DED” have a great opportunity here.
Undocumented immigrants make up about 11 million of the American population. Of those, 575,000 are Black.
Black immigrants face disproportionately harsh criminal prosecutions, which often lead to their deportation and detention. While the U.S. has only 7% of foreign-born residents who are Black, they account for 20% of those facing deportation.
Approximately 11,000 DACA recipients come from countries where the majority of emigrants are Black. In addition, a significant number of Black immigrants come from Spanish-speaking countries, and one-eleventh of the foreign-born Black population identifies as Hispanic. There are around 56K Haitians in the U.S. in TPS.
According to the National Immigration Forum, Haitian TPS holders live mainly in the Miami (16,287), New York (9,402), and Boston (4,302) metropolitan areas.
A pathway to citizenship for these individuals would be life-changing.
A decision should be made by Sept. 15., if the immigration provision can move forward. First, provisions will need to gain the clearance for inclusion of the Senate parliamentarian.
Several provisions similar to this have been incorporated in the past. Reconciliation bills have several strict rules governing what can and cannot be included in the budget. Then Republican opposition will almost certainly be unanimous, so Democrats cannot afford to lose any votes.
