Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), 17 other Senate Democrats and an independent sent a letter to President Biden Tuesday asking his administration “take all available action” to speed up the process for granting lawful status to migrants who have come to the country illegally.
The senators called on Biden to quickly give administrative “relief” to hundreds of thousands of immigrants to shield them from the possibility of being sent back if President Trump comes back to power.
The senators stated in the letter that more than 1.1 million U.S. citizens are married to an undocumented immigrant, and approximately 4.9 million U.S. citizen children have at least one undocumented parent. Deporting all of them, as former President Donald Trump has threatened to do if reelected, would severely harm the American economy and break up American families.
The senators highlighted that “undocumented immigrants” contributed around $9.7 billion in federal and state taxes and over $11 billion in Social Security contributions in 2019 alone.
“These families live in fear that they may be separated from their loved one due to deportation, and often skip much needed health care and do not report crimes due to their immigration status,” they wrote.
The signatories included Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), among others.
The senators specifically asked Biden to take action to speed up the processing of green card applications of undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens, noting that they face “significant processing delays.”
They argued that such applications now take a median of 42 months to complete.
The senators also want the administration to expedite the process for immigrants who arrived in the country at a young age and applied for legal status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program but later have the opportunity to be sponsored by a potential employer for a green card.
“Many applicants face processing obstacles when they try to change status. For example, they often have to go to a consulate to change status and struggle to get an appointment,” they wrote.
“We urge you to take steps to simplify the process by which DACA holders may obtain another status,” they said.
They also want the Homeland Security and Justice Departments to create a regulation to allow undocumented immigrants who are family caregivers to avoid deportation proceedings by applying for cancellation of removal orders.
The senators argued that making cancellation of deportation cases more efficient and expanding access to permanent resident status for caregivers would help “their American families” as they often support children with critical needs.
“We appreciate your careful consideration of these recommendations and all available options to provide much needed relief for undocumented immigrants and the American businesses, families, and communities that rely upon them,” they wrote.
