Alex Padilla made history last month as he became the first Latino Senator from the state of California, filling up the seat of now-Vice President Kamala Harris. The new Senator has hit the ground running. On Friday, he unveiled his first piece of legislation in the Senate: a bill that would give millions of essential workers in the United States a path to citizenship.
The bill signals that Senator Padilla will become an important player in the controversial topic of immigration reform. Born of immigrant parents who worked in the service industry themselves, Padilla joins only a handful of Latinos in the Senate. He called the bill—the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act—an easy choice for his first piece of legislation.
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of immigrant frontline workers in the United States—a recent study showed that 69% of undocumented immigrants hold essential jobs to fight the pandemic. Millions of immigrants in the health care, agriculture, construction, service, and janitorial industries, among others, have kept the country running during this crisis, proving the essentiality of their jobs and the importance of their contributions to the country that has oftentimes been overlooked. “I think nothing speaks to the moment more than COVID response and fairness for essential workers. On a parallel track, we know that immigration reform is long overdue in the United States of America and there are no states that have more at stake in immigration reform than the state of California,” Padilla said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
The bill would apply to both legally present and undocumented immigrants alike, offering a path to citizenship for an estimated 5 million people working in over a dozen essential industries. Senator Padilla has also been working with President Biden on his more expansive immigration bill, which would offer a path to citizenship to almost 11 million undocumented immigrants. The Senator has called the President’s bill the “ideal package,” but thought it important to introduce a complementary bill to highlight a particular segment of the population in question. “A standalone measure allows us to uplift specific elements of a comprehensive package as you continue to gain momentum and support,” he explained.
The bill is sure to meet strong resistance from Republicans in Congress, who have historically opposed almost all legalization of undocumented immigrants unless accompanied by stringent measures to crack down on further immigration. Nonetheless, Padilla counts with some powerful allies in Congress who continue to push forth for immigration reform. In the Senate, Senator Elizabeth Warren is co-sponsoring the bill, and his lead counterpart in the House of Representatives is Representative Joaquin Castro, recent chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In a news conference, the lawmakers highlighted the economic advantages of legalizing the status of essential workers as part of the national effort of economic recovery after the damage caused by the pandemic.
“Alex Padilla is a strong partner in Senate, especially to build a fairer immigration system. He not only brings subject matter expertise, but also reflects the lived experiences of millions of Americans. … This effort has real potential to meaningfully improve people’s lives,” said Representative Castro.