The House has passed two immigration bills aimed at amending the immigration system. The American Dream and Promise Act would create a process to help undocumented immigrants that were brought to the United States as children earn a conditional permanent resident status and eventual citizenship. This bill also includes a path to citizenship for people with temporary protected status and beneficiaries of deferred enforced departure.

“It would protect an estimated 2.5 million immigrants who would then be able to permanently be protected from deportation under this bill,” said Leydy Rangel, national communications manager for the UFW Foundation.

“Millions in this country live in fear, holding their breaths every day, that they could be deported to faraway lands that are not their homes,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Thursday. “Because America is their home. For Dreamers, it has been their home since their earliest days. And today, this House is going to take action – as we did last Congress – to help them breathe easier.”

The bill faced opposition from most GOP members, but it passed by a vote of 228-197.

The next bill passed was the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. According to NPR this bill “would establish a system for agricultural workers to earn temporary status with an eventual option to become a permanent resident. The act would also amend the existing H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa program.” Rangel said. “It would provide undocumented farmworkers a work permit so that they’re able to continue working in agriculture without that fear that so many of them live with.”

That fear, according to the United Farm Workers Foundation, is deportation. The foundation says there are 2.4 million farmworkers in the United States, and it’s estimated that roughly half of them are undocumented. If signed into law, the farm workforce modernization act would enable qualifying undocumented farmworkers to apply for a work permit. “They would have to have worked at least 180 days in total in the last two years prior to the bill being introduced on March 8, 2021,” said Rangel. The permits would be valid for four to eight years depending on the worker’s experience. After the permit ends the workers will be able to apply for legal permanent residency and possibly citizenship.

The future of these bills are uncertain because these two bills have not been signed into law, they’ve only been passed by the House, and will now need to be negotiated and passed by the Senate in order for the bill to land on President Biden’s desk.

Lindsey Urley is a freshman political science major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or at lrurley@eiu.edu.