Democrats unveil immigration bill

A new measure in Congress reflects President Joe Biden’s proposal for an eight-year path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants. Democrats revealed the immigration overhaul bill on Thursday.

What would the bill do? Farm workers, immigrants with temporary protected status, and people who arrived in the country illegally as children would become eligible for green cards. Others living in the United States as of the beginning of this year could gain temporary legal status after five years and then pursue citizenship three years later if they passed background checks, paid taxes, and fulfilled other requirements. The narrow Democratic majority in the Senate means the bill likely will not pass, but supporters might try to break up the various proposals and push them through piecemeal.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report in The Stew about Biden’s reversal of Trump-era immigration policies.