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We may devote one month out of the year to recognize the contributions of Latinos, but our Latino community and Tennessees immigrant population at-large make a steady impact all year long.

Tessa Lemos Del Pino, Tara Lentz and Martha Silva| Guest Columnists

Video: Voices of Tennessee DACA recipients

Evelin Salgado, Cesar Virto, Mercedes Gonzalez and Jazmin Ramirez speak on what DACA means to them

Courtney Pedroza, Nashville Tennessean

Hispanic Heritage Month may be over, but we can do one last thing to honor the contributions of Latinos and all immigrants in Tennessee: pass immigration reform.

Recently, we celebrated Congress important step toward forming a path to citizenship for immigrant youth, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, essential workers, and their families through the federal budget reconciliation process.

However, as the Parliamentarian ruled that Senate Democrats could not include immigration reform in the budget reconciliation process, we must call on the Senate to vote for comprehensive immigration reform now.

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Lets take a look at the data. According to the American Immigration Council, there are at least 130,000 undocumented residents, many who have called Tennessee home for decades.

70,982 U.S. citizens in Tennessee live with at least one undocumented family member. Without immigration reform and a path to citizenship, our undocumented neighbors and their U.S. citizen family members are at risk of family separation.

To further illustrate this risk, at least 4%of children in Tennessee live with at least one undocumented family member. Four percent of children in Tennessee must live in fear of one day coming home from school to find out a parent or other family member has been detained or deported.

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This crisis is further illuminated by the thousands of immigrant workers on the frontlines ensuring our countrys health, safety, and food supply during the pandemic. Immigrant workers kept building Nashvilles new high rises, and kept our entertainment and hospitality industries running, yet did not qualify for any federal pandemic relief benefits.

Additionally, without citizenship, Tennessees 10,300 DACA eligible youth must pay out of state tuition for higher education opportunities. Failure to provide a solution to these families will reverberate throughout our state and it's economy: DACA recipients possess $247.7 million in spending power in Tennessee according to the Center for American Progress. A path to citizenship will allow individuals and families to fully participate in our state and our country.

At Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors, we have represented thousands of people who are entitled to change immigration status under current U.S. immigration law.

Unfortunately, those opportunities are limited. We consult with many people who fled violence and poverty in their home countries to seek a better life in the United States.

They want nothing more than to apply for lawful immigration status. With lawful immigration status, they can work and obtain a drivers license. With lawful immigration status, they can build a safe and secure future for themselves and their families.

Yet, often we meet with people who have no options. There is no immigration process available to them, no matter how long they wait or how much money they pay. Our current immigration system is governed by a patchwork of laws designed to exclude and limit rather than encourage immigration. With immigration reform, we can return our country to one that welcomes immigrants and recognizes their essential contributions.

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Conexin Amricas has been serving the Latino community in Tennessee for almost 20 years, creating opportunities where Latino families can belong, contribute, and succeed.

After working for months to ensure our community participated in the 2020 Census, we know that in Tennessee our Latino and immigrant communities continue to grow. While not all Latinos are immigrants, many have family members and friends who are.

We may devote one month out of the year to recognize the contributions of Latinos in our community, but the fact is our Latino community and Tennessees immigrant population at-large make a steady impact all year long.

We need sensible immigration reform that allows all of our residents to stay united with their families, further their education and participate fully in the economy.

Today, we have the opportunity to help our neighbors thrive.

Call on Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty to pass immigration reform now.

Tessa Lemos Del Pino is executive director of Tennessee Justice for our Neighbors, and Tara Lentz and Martha Silva are interim co-executive directors of Conexin Amricas.

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Congress must pass immigration reform to help more than 100,000 Tennesseans | Opinion - Tennessean

By supporting our immigrant communities nationwide, we are in turn doing what is best for every one of us. An immigrant herself, Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy knows firsthand the importance of immigrants here in Florida. After fleeing Vietnam, the congresswoman and her family worked hard and built a better life for themselves and their children.

Similarly, my journey to the U.S. had its challenges. After practicing a strong work ethic and athletic training in my home country of Jamaica, I earned a full athletic scholarship to the University of Florida. Like Congresswoman Murphy, I knew I had to make a difference with this opportunity I was given. So, after receiving my bachelors degree from UF, I went on to earn my MBA, then my Juris Doctor degree, and started my own practice, where I work to help other immigrants secure hope for their future.

Our stories, like those of millions of immigrants, are essential to the American story. Immigrants have consistently worked hard to get to the United States and become valuable workers in essential industries, where they have contributed immensely to the nations economic recovery and reinforced the American workforce. Most recently, studies show, immigrant-owned businesses employed almost 8 million American workers and generated $1.3 trillion in total sales. In addition, immigrants comprise one in every five entrepreneurs in the country, with 3.2 million immigrants running their own businesses.

In Florida, one in four workers are foreign-born, and 420,000 undocumented immigrants contributed and worked in industries essential to Floridas pandemic recovery. Florida has a long tradition of welcoming those in search of safety and a better life.

Immigrants found a way to be resilient during this pandemic. The Migration Policy Institute recently reported that six million immigrants worked in frontline occupations such as health care, food production and transportation. They are also overrepresented in certain critical occupations such as doctors and home health aides, where they face heightened risk of COVID-19 exposure. The Institute further reported that another 6 million immigrants work in industries that have been economically devastated, such as food services and domestic household services, making up 20 percent of the total workforce in those industries.

At this time, immigrants face growing challenges through adverse and antagonistic policies. We need to stand up in support of creating a responsible pathway to residency and citizenship undocumented immigrants to further the legal integration into the American society.

I am confident that the congresswoman will build on her reputation as an advocate and leader by standing with Floridas immigrant community and supporting the inclusion of a pathway to residency and citizenship in the budget reconciliation package, despite the Senate parliamentarians recent ruling. With the leadership of people like Congresswoman Murphy, we can pass long overdue immigration reforms.

Congresswoman Murphy and I were part of the privileged few who were given the opportunity to create a life for ourselves in America. Now that we are here, we must fight for those who are still awaiting their opportunity to make their mark in the land of the free. I urge the congresswoman to make her voice heard and be an advocate for Floridas immigrant communities by supporting a pathway to protections and citizenship in the budget reconciliation legislation.

Skou Clarke, Esq. is an Orlando attorney and founder of the Skou Clarke Law Group.

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Local op-ed: Dont give up the fight for immigration reform - Orlando Weekly

The Biden administration unveiled an updated framework of its budget reconciliation bill on Thursday, with $100 billion earmarked for immigration reform.

The $1.75 trillion spending plan includes watered-down immigration provisions after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough struck down Democrats last two proposals to provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants.

Democrats are now gearing up to present a Plan C to MacDonough in coming weeks.

What does the new framework say about immigration?

The legislative package proposes moving up the eligibility date on the immigration registry, a 1929 immigration provision that allows certain undocumented people already in the United States to receive green cards. The last time Congress updated the policy was 1986, so the eligibility dates dont apply to most people living in the country today. Democrats propose moving the eligibility dates up to 2010, allowing those who entered the country illegally between Jan. 1, 1972 and Dec. 31, 2009 to qualify for lawful permanent residence.

The bill also proposes recapturing family and employment green cards that went unused under yearly immigration caps from 1992 to 2021. Recapture provisions could provide relief to an estimated 4 million people waiting for family-based green cards and about 1 million stuck in the employment-based list, according to think tank the Niskanen Center.It also includes a provision that would allow foreigners to pay additional fees to skip the green card queue, helping curb the backlog.

Green card waste is a decades-old issue in the U.S. and its time to fix it once and for all, said Boundless CEO Xiao Wang. It is more than fair that the millions of visas that were approved by Congress but went unused because of government inefficiencies be available to people whove been waiting decades to receive them.

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Democrats' Updated Spending Bill Includes Watered-Down Immigration Reform - Boundless - Boundless

President Biden on Thursday proposed devoting $100 billion in his $1.85 trillion domestic policy bill to protect millions of undocumented immigrants, pushing to salvage a broader immigration overhaul that has stalled in Congress.

Democrats efforts to allow such measures to piggyback on the social safety net and climate legislation have so far fallen short, because of strict budget rules that limit what can be included.

House Democrats are planning to try to include one anyway, to appease colleagues who have said they cannot support a plan that lacks help for undocumented people, and to buy themselves time to devise an alternative that might be able to survive the Senates arcane rules.

Mr. Bidens plan would recapture hundreds of thousands of unused visas dating back to 1992 and protect millions of undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for years from deportation. It also includes $2.8 billion for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to more efficiently process migrants paperwork.

The Senate parliamentarian, the chambers top rules enforcer, has repeatedly shot down Democrats efforts to include such measures in the bill, which is moving through Congress under a special process known as reconciliation that shields it from a filibuster. Only provisions that directly impact government revenues can be included in such bills, and the parliamentarian has ruled that two other immigration measures do not pass that test.

House Democrats plan to include one of those disqualified plans in their bill: a date change to the immigration registry, which allows otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States continuously since Jan. 1, 2011, to adjust their status and gain a pathway to citizenship.

They fully expect that the provision will be nixed by the parliamentarian, who has said the policy change far outweighed its fiscal impact. They plan to replace it later with a proposal costing about the same amount, once they find an alternative that can survive under Senate rules.

Senate Democrats have embraced a backup plan to expand the Homeland Security secretarys authority to grant a temporary status known as parole to undocumented immigrants who have lived in the country for a decade, providing them with work permits and shielding them from deportation. The work permits would last five years, and then would need to be renewed for another five. The parliamentarian has not yet ruled on that proposal.

Immigration advocates cheered Mr. Bidens decision to insist that an immigration overhaul be included in the reconciliation package as evidence they could achieve some aspects of reform while Democrats hold both chambers of Congress and the presidency.

One way or another, we expect immigration reform to be in the final bill and win freedom for millions of immigrants, said Lorella Praeli, co-president of Community Change Action.

The Biden administration has already made policy changes to immigration enforcement priorities that would make most of the people eligible for relief in the budget proposals a low priority for arrest and deportation. But those measures are far from permanent and can be reversed by another president.

Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting.

Originally posted here:
An Immigration Overhaul is Part of Biden's Spending Framework - The New York Times

Democrats plan to allocate $100 billion to immigration as part of their sweeping tax and social spending bill even if a Senate rules official rejects their latest effort to protect undocumented people, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said.

The White House released a framework Thursday that sets aside $100 billion for immigration-related measures consistent with the Senates reconciliation rules.

The Senate parliamentariana staff lawyer who advises on measures eligible for the budget reconciliation process Democrats are using to advance their domestic agendawill soon review a proposal to provide work authorization and deportation protections for some undocumented immigrants through humanitarian parole status.

Some type of immigration measure will move forward no matter what, Kaine said.

Were going to spend these resources on immigration reform regardless of the ruling, Kaine said. The shape of those reforms is still awaiting the parliamentarian ruling on this kind of protected status.

Democrats are looking for creative ways to ensure the immigration funding provides the greatest relief possible, even if the parliamentarian shoots down the most ambitious proposals, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said.

Its been such a huge challenge to get any kind of an immigration provision thats going to really be helpful to a lot of immigrants in our country, and I want to get us on that path somehow, she said. We have to put our heads together and figure out how that money can best be used in the way that Id like to see.

Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) underscored Democrats commitment to addressing immigration, saying in a statement that now is the time and reconciliation is the way.

House Democrats on Thursday released draft text of the legislative package (H.R. 5376). It includes a separate proposal to update a federal registry law that allows people to apply for legal status if theyve been in the country since a certain date. The update would extend to immigrants who arrived before 2010.

The Senate parliamentarian already rejected the proposal earlier this month. House Democrats are including it as a functional placeholder, in a maneuver to keep their options open as they wait to see if the parole proposal is approved. Lawmakers may later swap in the parole language or something else.

Democrats Aim to Keep Immigration Options Open in Latest Move

The House draft also includes provisions to help people in the legal immigration system by recapturing unused green cards, allowing some immigrants to adjust their legal status faster and bypass some overall and per-country caps on visas.

It remained unclear Thursday whether the provisions would end up in a final deal.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said lawmakers plan to scrub the language to ensure everything included meets Senate reconciliation rules, which require all provisions to relate to the federal budget.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ellen M. Gilmer in Washington at egilmer@bloombergindustry.com

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah Babbage at sbabbage@bgov.com; Fawn Johnson at fjohnson@bloombergindustry.com

Excerpt from:
Democrats to Press Ahead on Immigration Plan, Senator Says (2) | Bloomberg Government - Bloomberg Government