By August Barham

Nov. 22, 2021

 

The immigration provisions in President Biden’s Build Back Better Act—passed by the House on Nov. 19—could benefit undocumented people brought to the United States as children by protecting against deportation and providing access to a driver’s license and work permit. But the provisions are not expected to survive the upcoming Senate vote.

 

Since the Trump administration attempted to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in 2017—a program that provides “Dreamers” protection from deportation and access to a driver’s license, social security number and work permit—the program has faced legal instability. Currently, the program is only available for renewals. The immigration provisions in the $2.2 trillion reconciliation bill could provide “Dreamers” who are not DACA recipients with many of the program’s benefits. This is the latest attempt from Democrats to fulfill Biden’s campaign promise to address anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies from the Trump administration.

 

“​​It is my fervent hope that through reconciliation or other means, Congress will finally provide security to all ‘Dreamers,’ who have lived too long in fear,” said Biden in a July 17 statement from the White House on DACA legislation.

 

The most recent draft of the BBB Act does not provide a direct pathway to U.S. citizenship but redistributes 400,000 unused green cards. It also provides a path to “parole”— temporary admission into the United State—for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. since at least Jan. 1, 2011. This would include most “Dreamers” who, on average, were brought to the U.S. around 1999, according to an April 2020 study by the Center for American Progress. This data does not include non-DACA recipients.

 

Betzabeth Arredondo, 23, is a DACA recipient in her senior year at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Arredondo came to the U.S. from Mexico City in 2004 and has resided in Michigan ever since—making her eligible for the proposed “parole.” 

 

“We first lived in Texas for a couple of months, but then my mom and I moved to Michigan to get reunited with my father,” Arredondo said. 

 

Arredondo says that she hopes programs to address persistent concerns for DACA recipients will follow in the wake of the immigration reform proposed in the BBB Act. For “Dreamers” without DACA, access to a driver’s license and work permit through the Act could provide increased access to higher education, financial independence and professional opportunities. It could also relieve the stress of deportation as they work toward their college degrees and professional careers.

 

Critics point to the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border as an argument against the provisions, with a 33% increase in migrant encounters at the border since May 2019. These critics are partially concerned about immigrants competing with Americans for jobs, according to The Washington Post.

 

Manny Guisa, the development coordinator for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said that the provisions could benefit the U.S. economy and help with post-pandemic recovery.

 

“Having an influx of immigrants right now who have work authorization would be a benefit to the economy because they have more purchasing power,” Guisa said. “You have people who then become consumers in ways that they couldn't be before.”

 

The provisions would also permit “Dreamers” to safely travel by providing access to a driver’s license and permission to travel abroad. Arredondo says that she hopes to be able to comfortably travel abroad to see her family under the proposed immigrant provisions in the BBB Act. 

 

“I have not been able to visit my father and my brother who are living in

Mexico City because they were both deported,” Arredondo said. “I dream of reuniting with them someday.”

 

Critics who wish to limit immigration say that providing a pathway for undocumented immigrants to gain driver’s licenses without having to comply with the standards from the REAL ID Act is a national security risk.

 

“Waiving those standards for ‘aliens’ who have entered the United States illegally and who have never been screened before entering this country is foolhardy, to say the least,” wrote Andrew R. Arthur, Law and Policy Resident Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, in a Nov. 5 article. CIS is a think tank that aims to limit immigration.

 

Arthur also labeled the attempt pass immigration reform through reconciliation “a sneaky piece of work.” Reconciliation is a legislative process used to move spending bills through Congress without risk of a filibuster, which requires a supermajority of 60 votes to overcome. Democrats are attempting to avoid a filibuster, which killed multiple immigration reform attempts in the past, including the DREAM Act in 2010.

 

Opponents and proponents agree on two points: that if passed as is, BBB would provide a pathway to legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants, and that the provisions are unlikely to make it through the Senate. Guisa says that with most major bills, immigration provisions are often the first to go due to “identity politics” and anti-immigration rhetoric. He says that this rhetoric is particularly extreme following the Trump presidency, but that the sentiments are not new and are still perpetuated by the Biden administration.

 

“Immigrants are the political punching bag of the century, we're constantly pushed against, most vehemently and xenophobically by the right, but equally so by centrist and corporate Democrats,” Guisa said.

 

Arredondo says that she has not seen much action from the Biden administration to address “Dreamers’” concerns from the Trump era and she does not expect to see significant immigration reform in this bill or elsewhere. 

“​​I have lost a bit of hope and do not see a better immigration reform for DACA recipients coming soon,” Arredondo said.