The Biden administration will make a fresh push on immigration reform in the new year, looking for ways to provide legal status for so-called "Dreamers" and increase the labor supply to help lower inflation. Biden’s advisers know the situation at the border — with as man as 14,000 migrants expected to be crossing daily if Title 42 ends — presents an urgent humanitarian emergency and a long-term political dilemma. Top economic aides are concerned that the lack of immigrant workers is leading to labor shortages, which will continue to keep inflation high. Finding a legislative compromise that’s acceptable to the GOP-controlled House, as well as the president’s progressive base, will be a massive challenge, Axios reports. Immigration reform is "harder in the divided Congress, but it's so clearly necessary in light of what we're seeing in the job market," Csaid Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. "Immigration is a lever.. We're down a million immigrants a year. That's a workforce that we need."
Leading up to next year’s State of the Union, Biden aides will continue to refine the president's 2023 agenda, considering what's legislatively possible and what they need to include to please their progressive base. In a possible immigration compromise, Republicans would receive increased funding for border security; Democrats would win permanent protection for the roughly two million undocumented migrants who were brought here as minors, and the business and agricultural communities would get more visas for high- and low-skilled workers. he most recent bipartisan effort by Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) foundered over a lack of 60 Senate votes. Biden outlined his plan to modernize the immigration system on the first day of his presidency and has continued to call it a priority.
Comments