Last week, the House of Representatives passed two monumental bills for some of our immigrant communities. One measure sets out to provide a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers,” or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. The other would grant green cards and other protections to the essential farmworkers who have kept the country running during the coronavirus crisis. The two measures had already passed in the House in previous years, but had not been taken up by the then-Republican-controlled Senate under former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The first of the bills, called the American Dream and Promise Act, provides a pathway to citizenship to the millions of DACA recipients brought to the United States as children, many of whom have had to live with irregular immigration statuses despite never knowing another country as their home. The bill passed with 228 to 197 votes, with nine Republican representatives joining the Democrats’ efforts. In the past, the bill had passed with seven Republican votes, but failed to make it to the Senate floor.
One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), pointed out in a statement that “for far too long, Dreamers and others have waited in limbo and lived with the fear of being deported from the only country they know as home.” President Biden called the Act “a critical first step in reforming our immigration system and will provide much needed relief to TPS holders and Dreamers, young people who came here as children and know no other country.”
The second bill, titled the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, would allow for undocumented workers to apply for legal status and be granted green cards after paying a fine and remaining in the agriculture field for four to eight years. Additionally, the bill would overhaul the temporary agricultural worker program that allows certain U.S. employers to bring foreign workers into the country. The bill passed by a vote of 247-174, this time with 30 Republicans voting in favor. In the past, 34 House Republicans had voted in favor of a similar bill, which again failed to reach the Senate floor. In a statement, President Biden said that “the Act will deliver the lawful status and better working conditions that this critical workforce deserves, as well as much needed stability for farmers, growers, and the entire agriculture industry.”
The push to regularize the status of undocumented farmworkers has especially strengthened during the coronavirus pandemic, in which millions of undocumented workers have disproportionately risked their lives to continue to supply food for the rest of the country. Rep. Raul Ruiz, (D-CA), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, pointed out the importance of immigrant communities during the pandemic, saying that “Dreamers are doctors, nurses, lab technicians, contact tracers and job creators. Farmworkers are getting infected and dying from Covid at a much higher rate than the general public. They are literally dying to feed you, give you the nutrients you need to heal from Covid.”
Co-sponsor Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), a farmer himself, explained that the U.S. food supply has remained stable during the pandemic “thanks to the farmers of America, but also the farmworkers of America, most of whom are undocumented and most of whom have been here more than 10 years. They live in a period of uncertainty and we decided we should do something about it.” “Bringing our agriculture labor program into the 21st century is absolutely critical as we work to recover from the impacts of the pandemic and ensure a stable food supply chain in the United States. We must act now to provide certainty to farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers across the country,” he added.
President Biden’s more comprehensive immigration bill, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, is yet to be taken up for a vote by House Democrats. The passage of the American Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, however, signals a step in the right direction as both bills make their way to the Senate.