82% of Dreamers Won ' t Benefit from House Bill ' s Citizenship Path

ConclusionIn the best case scenario, the House GOP plan would likely provide a pathway to citizenship to fewer than 630,000 Dreamers —barely a third of the president’s promise in January and just 18 percent of the entire Dreamer population. Moreover, only an estimated 421,000 immigrants are likely to become citizens.If Congress wants to fulfill the president ’s promise of a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers, it would need to institute a broader legalization program for Dreamers with as few risks and costs, and as little confusion, as possible. Congress would also need to provide legal certainty in some form for their parents to mitigate fear of coming forward. Members of Congress should also not exaggerate the extent of the legalization of Dreamers as part of a strategy to justify questionable policy choices, including reducing legal immigration and eliminating several immigration categories.Table 2 compares the eligibility criteria and requirements under the BSIF Act to those under DACA and the Securing America ’s Future (SAF) Act, which is the other bill under consideration this week.Table 2: Comparison of Pathways to Status& Citizenship Under House Bills and DACA*Thelegal immigrant Dreamers would slightly increase the eligible population, but there are so few who would meet the requirements (10 years of continuous residency before the bill passes plus 5 or 6 more after it is implemented) that it would not substantially alter these numbers. In any case...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs