After a closed-door meeting in the White House between the president, the vice president Kamala Harris and members of the Congressional Hispanic Democratic Caucus, lawmakers acknowledged that the tentative focus is on two plans approved by the House of Representatives last month with bipartisan support.
Both accounts include a path to citizenship to dreamers, holders of temporary protected status (TPS) and agricultural workers. The first of the immigration projects received 228 photos in favor (9 of them Republicans) and 197 against, while it was approved (to legalize the sustainability of between 2 and 3 million farmers) with 247 votes (of which 30 Republicans) and 174 votes against (1 of them Democrat).
Senator Bob Menéndez told reporters at the end of the meeting that the meeting was “the best” the Hispanic Caucus has held with a president to discuss issues that interest and concern the Latino community in the United States.
Shortly before the meeting, Menéndez wrote on his Twitter account: “It has been a long time since the 60 million Latinos in the United States were able to make their voices heard in the Oval Office. Great meeting with @POTUS. Hopefully it will be the first of many ”.
“The group urged the president to do more to lobby and find ways to advance the path to citizenship for the millions of immigrants living in the shadows,” said a Democratic source familiar with the talks.
Meeting topics
In addition to Menéndez, the meeting was attended by senator Catherine Cortes-Masto (Nevada) and congressmen Joaquín Castro (Texas), Adriano Espaillat (New York), Darren Soto (Florida) and Raúl Ruiz (California).
The lawmakers indicated that if the issue of immigration reform is not resolved by votes in both houses of Congress, they will instead call the so-called ” package or reconciliation processto bring the two bills passed by the House of Representatives on March 18 to Biden’s office.
Recognition of the difficulties in promoting comprehensive immigration reform, one of Biden’s major campaign promises, has been suspended in Congress for lack of bipartisan support.
The project, since it was announced on Jan. 20, has received only Democratic votes and the rejection of Republican banks in both houses of the legislature.
The meeting also discussed the fight against the pandemic COVID-19 and about a new aid package, this time to assist people with rent arrears.
Republican warnings
On Saturday, at an event hosted in Miami by the Venezuelan Community to find bipartisan support in the Senate for the two plans approved by the House, Congressman María Elvira Salazar (Florida Republican) warned that her party I would not approve any benefits immigration until the Biden government puts an end to the crisis experienced at the border.
Salazar also defended the former president’s policy of ‘zero tolerance’ Donald Trump and said Biden shouldn’t have turned it back, especially at the border with Mexico.
Moderate and conservative Republican sources have told Univision Noticias that they will not support Biden’s immigration reform, but are evaluating the House of Representatives’ plans.
From day one in the White House, Biden has destroyed much of the previous administration’s questioned immigration policies, including the Migrant Protection Program (MPP), who have returned more than 65,000 immigrants to Mexican territory to wait in that country for their asylum cases to be resolved by the United States Immigration Court.
Biden’s measures allowed the Flores Judicial Agreement of 1997 and the TVPRA Act of 2008 to enter into force, which regulate the way the government should act to handle asylum cases of unaccompanied minors (UAC) held at the border , one of the main problems of the current crisis that was hidden during the Trump administration, which strangled a fair trial.
Other recommendations
The Hispanic Caucus also said that at the meeting with Biden, they insisted on speeding up the debate over the immigration plans approved by the House, while asking the president to create some sort of rapid emergency response group that would serve the needs of the boundary would occur.
They also indicated that, individually, each of the Caucos members will meet with Vice President Harris to advise and assist her on her trip to Central America, where she will lay the groundwork for an ambitious on-demand work plan van Biden to attack the roots. of undocumented migration.
On the topic of the pandemic, the group said it briefed the president of the lack of Spanish doctors on the front lines of the struggle with minorities and the most vulnerable communities.
They pushed the issue of immigration reform, pointing out that for now there are “no specific times” for when there would be a comprehensive bill, like the one shared by the White House in January. But in the meantime, they continue to work on the two bills that the House of Representatives approved in March.
The meeting also discussed the issue of the president’s infrastructure plan, which is currently being debated in both chambers seeking bipartisan support.
Senator Cortes-Masto said that “today’s meeting with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris was a great opportunity to discuss how we can work together to create more jobs in Latino communities.”
“The pandemic has exacerbated existing racial inequalities in Nevada and the United States, and my goal is to ensure that we can get Latinos back into work with well-paying jobs and invest in our Latino businesses,” he said.
