(The Center Square) – In a defiant stand against President Donald Trump’s recent mass deportations and executive order banning automatic birthright citizenship, House Democrats have reintroduced legislation that would allow citizenship for Dreamers and migrants with temporary protected status.
The American Dream and Promise Act would bestow a 10-year conditional permanent residency status, with a pathway to citizenship, for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children and migrants with either Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Enforced Departure status.
“These young people were brought to this country as children through no fault of their own. They grew up in our neighborhoods, went to our schools, played with our children, and pledged allegiance to the American flag,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, who sponsored the bill, said at an outdoor press conference Wednesday.
“Now is the time to make sure that every dreamer out there knows that we’re behind them and that we love them and that we know they’ve contributed to this country, and they need to stay here,” she added.
The bipartisan legislation, if passed, would impact roughly 5 million people. The American Community Survey has estimated that the Dreamer population consists of at least 3.4 million people as of 2023 and more than 1 million foreign nations were granted Temporary Protected Status in 2024 alone, The Center Square reported.
The bill has the support of more than 100 organizations. The National Immigration Law Center hailed the legislation as “a rare example of a solutions-focused bill,” while the Council on American-Islamic Relations welcomed it as “a long-overdue measure.”
The Federation for American Immigration Reform has calculated that the net cost of illegal immigration in the United States at the start of 2023 was $150.7 billion, reaching that number by subtracting the $31 billion in tax revenue from undocumented migrants from the $182 billion in gross negative economic impact caused by their presence in the U.S.
But the Center for American Progress estimates the national GDP could grow by $799 billion over the next ten years if Dreamers are provided a pathway to citizenship.
