President Joe Biden celebrated the release of his proposed bill in Congress Thursday offering amnesty to illegal immigrants.
“I look forward to working with leaders in the House and Senate to address the wrongdoings of the past administration and restore justice, humanity, and order to our immigration system,” Biden said in a statement.
The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, introduced by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-CA), creates an eight-year path to amnesty for roughly 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the United States.
More than 10 million Americans are unemployed in the United States as the coronavirus pandemic continues and seven million remain out of the labor force.
The bill that Biden supported would also offer a quicker path to citizenship for farm workers as well as illegal aliens brought to the United States as children who are currently protected under DACA.
The bill would also replace the use of the word “illegal alien” throughout the government to describe illegal aliens as “noncitizens” instead.
Biden complained that the immigration policies of the previous four years under former President Donald Trump only “exacerbated the already broken immigration system” and vowed to modernize the system.
“This is an important first step in pursuing immigration policies that unite families, grow and enhance our economy, and safeguard our security,” Biden said.
Republicans widely condemned the bill as a massive amnesty for illegal immigrants, making it unlikely to meet the 60 vote threshold in the Senate to pass.
Biden’s support of the bill fulfills his campaign promise to make immigration reform a priority in the first days of his administration, even though it is unlikely to earn enough support to pass the Senate.
The president argued that immigration was “an irrefutable source of our strength” and would continue fighting for more amnesty for illegal immigrants.
“These are not Democratic or Republican priorities – but American ones,” he said.