In its two years in office, the Trump administration has taken steps to strip protections and work authorization from several groups of people who have lived in the country for decades—those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). DACA offers protections to a subset of immigrants and immigrant youth (often referred to as “Dreamers”) who came to the United States as children, while TPS and DED protect immigrants from a designated set of countries facing issues such as ongoing armed conflict or natural disasters.
On March 12, 2019, Representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Yvette D. Clark (D-NY), and Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) introduced H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, which would extend a pathway to citizenship for certain immigrants who came to the United States as children and individuals eligible for TPS and DED. In total, CSII estimates up to 2.5 million immigrants could be eligible to pursue permanent legal status—and eventually citizenship—under this legislation. A summary of the bill can be found here.
The above excerpt was originally published in University of Southern California Dornsife Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.
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