The House will vote for HR 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of California. This would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented young immigrants known as “Dreamers”, as well as for recipients of Temporary Protection Status and beneficiaries of the Postponed Forced Exit. The legislation is expected to make up to 4.4 million individuals eligible for permanent residence, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
The House is also expected to vote on the HR 1603, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, the bipartisan legislation of Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren of California and Republican Representative Dan Newhouse of Washington. The project would allow farm workers, their spouses and children to gain legal status through continued employment in the agricultural sector, and would make changes to the H-2A guest farm worker program.
Both bills have already been passed by the House in previous years, but are being voted on again, with Democrats holding a small majority in the House and Senate. Both are expected to pass the House again, but hit a barrier in the Senate.
House Republicans have been attacking the Biden government over the flow of migrants crossing the border in recent weeks, including the huge increase in unaccompanied minors making the journey to the United States.
Many of these migrants who cross the border have said they believe the Biden government will be more welcoming than the Trump administration, which has taken a tougher stance.
“It is more than a crisis. It is a human heartbreak,” Republican Party leader Kevin McCarthy said at a news conference during a trip to the border this week. “The sad part of all this is that it didn’t have to happen. This crisis is created by the presidential policies of this new government. There is no other way to claim it than a crisis at the Biden border.”
The pressure to pass these two bills will give House Democrats the opportunity to say that they are working to move immigration reforms forward, but doubts remain about the fate of broader efforts to reform the country’s immigration system.
And while some progressive Democrats would like to see comprehensive immigration reform legislation instead of these two fragmented bills, other Democrats threw cold water on the idea, emphasizing how difficult it would be to pass a broader immigration package.
“I don’t see a way to get there,” said the Illinois Democrat. “I want to. I think we are much more likely to deal with discrete elements.”
Pondering the House’s effort to move immigration bills, Durbin said: “I think President Pelosi has found that she has no support for a comprehensive bill in the House,” said Durbin. “And it indicates where it is in the Senate as well.”
CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.