Editor’s note: With President Donald Trump and many Republican senators losing ground in recent polls, the odds of Democrats controlling all three branches of government are increasing. The series “Here’s What To Expect In 2021” will cover policies that have passed in the Democrat-run U.S. House of Representatives and which poll well among the Democrat base.
“Build the wall.” That slogan arguably played a significant role in helping President Donald Trump win the White House in 2016. The 2020 presidential election however, might just be a ‘make or break’ situation for Republican immigration policy.
With presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden holding a significant lead over Trump, according to RealClearPolitics polling, a look at Democratic voter priorities and legislation passed by House Democrats could provide an indication of what immigration policy might look like in 2021 in the event of a sweeping Democratic victory.
Biden’s campaign website details a list of policy goals he would pursue regarding immigration, and as expected, his website repeats the “nation of immigrants” cliché. If president, Biden’s goals include amnesty and citizenship for illegal aliens, increasing the number of visas, accepting more refugees, and imposing new regulations on border protection agencies.
Joe Biden talks about immigration during a Democratic presidential debate in Miami, Florida (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
28% of Democratic voters ranked immigration as an “extremely important” issue, according to Gallup polling published in January. (RELATED: Democratic Voters Are Shifting Left On Immigration Issues, Poll Finds)
A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released in June found that 74% of Democrats supported a path to citizenship for Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, while an additional 15% supported a path to permanent residency but not citizenship.
A Rasmussen poll released in June also found that 68% of Democrats “strongly” or “somewhat” supported permanent legal status for the estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the U.S. Furthermore, 50% of Democrats supported chain migration and only 43% supported a mandatory E-Verify system to prevent companies from hiring illegal aliens.
When asked what the total number of immigrants admitted to the U.S. should be, 55% of Democrats said at least 1 million, and 19% said more than 1.5 million. Roughly 1.1 million immigrants obtained lawful permanent residency in 2018, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Although Republicans have voted for left-wing immigration bills, House Democrats have pushed through increasingly radical bills knowing that they would fail in the Republican-led Senate.
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks as Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib listen during a press conference (Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)
The first major bill House Democrats unveiled was H.R. 1044, or the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act. The bill would eliminate the 7% per-country cap for employment visas and raise the per-country cap for family visas to 15%. This would help Indian and Chinese nationals while hurting American workers in the tech industry, the Center for Immigration Studies reported.
H.R. 1044 was introduced January 8, 2019 by Democratic California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, and passed the House in a 365 – 65 vote August 10. However, the bill has been held up in the Senate since September 17.
Another major bill from House Democrats was H.R. 6, or the American Dream and Promise Act. The bill would provide more than 2.5 million immigrants protection from deportation and an opportunity to obtain permanent legal status, according to the National Immigration Forum.
H.R. 6 was introduced March 12, 2019 by Democratic California Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, and passed the House in a 237 – 187 vote June 4, 2019. However, the bill was promptly tabled June 10, 2019 after introduced in the Senate.
As a rebuke to the Trump administration’s border policies, which involve migrant detention centers, House Democrats introduced H.R. 3239, or the Humanitarian Standards for Individuals in Customs and Border Protection Custody Act. The bill would impose stringent regulations on how Customs and Border Protection handles aliens in their custody.
Migrants are loaded onto a bus by U.S. Border Patrol agents after being detained when they crossed into the United States from Mexico (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
H.R. 3239 was introduced June 12, 2019 by Democratic California Rep. Raul Ruiz, and passed the House in a 233 – 195 vote July 24. However, the bill was promptly tabled July 25 after introduced in the Senate.
The White House also opposed the bill, and the current border policy has galvanized the Democratic Party’s more progressive lawmakers and voters. (RELATED: Immigration Will Dramatically Shift The Electoral College In Favor Of Democrats, Study Finds)
In addition to these immigration bills, House Democrats are publicly calling for more radical changes. Among these is the call to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which was supported by several Democratic presidential candidates and a number of progressive Democrats.
Progressive Democrats like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is part of “the squad,” has been open to ideas like giving illegal aliens welfare and even abolishing DHS entirely.
The policy goals and legislation put forth by the Democrats are an indication of how the party might govern with regards to immigration. If the Democrats win, an America in 2021 could see more unrestrained, mass legal and illegal immigration.