Biden promises to ‘restore justice and humanity’ to immigration as Democrats unveil Citizenship Act

President Joe Biden said Donald Trump’s “misguided policies have exacerbated the already broken immigration system and highlighted the critical need for reform” as the president announced the introduction of his sweeping immigration legislation in Congress.

The president’s US Citizenship Act, ushered into Congress by Senator Bob Menendez and US Rep Linda Sanchez, proposes a sweeping set of reforms with an eight-year path to citizenship that could impact 11 million immigrants.

“I look forward to working with leaders in the House and Senate to address the wrongdoings of the past administration and restore justice, humanity, and order to our immigration system,” the president said in a statement on Thursday.

The legislation would create a five-year path to temporary legal status for immigrants, after which they can become eligible for a green card, then after three years are eligible to apply for citizenship.

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It also proposes expediting green card eligibility for migrant farmworkers, young people who arrived in the US as children, and immigrants with temporary protected status. The paths to citizenship would apply only to people who have been in the country since 1 January or earlier.

The proposal also would provide more funding for immigration judges and legal assistance to address the backlog of cases from people seeking asylum in the US, which has hit record highs as the border has effectively

The bill also will seek to address the “root causes of irregular migration” from Central America,” Mr Biden said, with funding to improve conditions in neighbouring countries, set up refugee processing centres in Central America and expand a transnational gang task force.

“These are not Democratic or Republican priorities – but American ones,” Mr Biden said. “I’ve laid out my vision for what it’ll take to reform our immigration system and I look forward to working with leaders in Congress to get this done.”

The 353-page plan introduced in the House of Representatives follows the president’s outline introduced in his first day in office, as the incoming administration announced several immigration-related executive orders aimed at undoing the prior administration’s draconian anti-immigration agenda, including freezing construction of the US-Mexico border wall, suspending certain deportations, and revoking a “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting migrants, which led to thousands of separated families and exacerbated a growing border crisis.

Mr Biden’s administration is also reviewing a host of Trump-era immigration guidance and policies, including the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy that has forced thousands of asylum seekers to remain in vulnerable parts of Mexico while their cases are pending.

Republicans have already condemned the bill in a lengthy report detailing the “successes” of the Trump administration.

“We will never win an argument that we don’t have the courage to make,” Senator Menendez said during a virtual press conference on Thursday. “We will do the righteous thing and make our case for both inclusive and lasting immigration reform.”