Marley Brennan
Staff Writer
Biden’s immigration plan is one of the only ones that will truly attempt to face the severity of the topic and find a solution so that it can provide proper hospitality to people who need it.
Immigrants in the U.S. face language barriers, separation from their families, deportation, unemployment, prejudice and much more. During Donald Trump’s presidency, Trump signed 3 executive orders that threatened to take away immigrants’ rights. As of 2021, 14% of the population in the United States is made up of immigrants. Congress has failed to come up with a proper reform to our immigration system. Joe Biden’s plan is to reverse the actions of Trump and add more of a systematic and humanitarian approach to the pressing reform at hand.
According to the Center for Migration, Donald Trump promised to increase and prioritize the annual amount of deportations as he wanted to focus on criminal noncitizen deportations. He stated that any immigrant who has disobeyed a public benefit program, committed a crime, or participated in any fraud are all subject to deportation. One of Biden’s goals is to reverse the effects of Trump by restoring America’s morals. In cooperation with the Obama Administration, Biden seeks to relieve the immigrants of fear and stress. He plans to create a pathway to citizenship for those who are undocumented, keep families together, invite and embrace diversity, and improve immigration courts. Biden needs to introduce this to Congress who will decide if it shall be carried through or denied. His plan is the one which will finally treat immigrants in the way they should be treated.
Per the Washington Post, Biden is right to be demanding the reforms that this country needs regarding immigration. For the 11 million current immigrants living in the United States, Biden has proposed a new system and gateway to citizenship – that is, for those who have stayed and will stay out of trouble. Many previous presidents have picked at the potential and necessary reforms though nobody has tackled with such passion. This empathy that is expressed from president Biden was not shown via our previous president.
As stated by the LA Times, the president is proposing a ‘statute of limitations’ to Congress on deportation and legalization. Congress should accept at least a minimum of Biden’s suggestions and reforms. Doing so will lead our country into a better state pertaining immigration and humanity as a whole by allowing a more reasonable way to obtain citizenship in the United States. It is possible that this will even deter crimes from occurring as the noncitizens will realize and seek the new process of becoming a legal citizen in the United States.
Joe Biden’s plan somewhat follows that of Barack Obama. Obama is a world renown advocate for humanitarian acts. He also believed that the immigration system is one that is broken and needs to be fixed. Obama believed that our values are what shape our country. He knew that we had to be more open-minded and inclusive when it came to immigrants. Biden and Obama both believe that our country should always welcome those who can better augment it.
On the other side, some may view Biden’s plan as one that is advocating for lawlessness. As mentioned, his plan seeks to build a new path in which people can gain citizenship in the United States. This is technically illegal as there are only 4 ways one can become a U.S. citizen: by birth, through derivation, through acquisition, and through naturalization. Some may believe that our country should not be tailoring to the needs of the immigrants and rather to what is best for the legal citizens. Promoting a new path to citizenship is equal to promoting people to disobey the law, many claim because they believe immigrants are not and should not be a part of our country.
By creating this new path, Biden is opening up an innumerable amount of opportunities for immigrants. This is the way to turn our ongoing cruel and unfair treatment into hospitality. The reason that Biden is not promoting lawlessness is simple: he is not advocating for anything illegal. For a plan to become legal, it needs to get passed through Congress. If Congress approves it, then it will be legal. Biden is advocating for a new pathway to citizenship that is to become legal after his plan is positively endorsed by Congress.
Biden’s Immigration Plan is the only one to formally address the necessary reforms. Trump has placed major limitations on immigrants which went to restrict their rights as humans and their dignity as a whole. With the mission to inverse these restrictions, Biden plans on creating a new road to citizenship for immigrants which includes reforms on the criminal justice system.
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