The House on Tuesday passed a bill that would offer a path to citizenship to more than 2 million undocumented immigrants, including "Dreamers" who were brought to the United States as children.
The vote was 237-to-187 for the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, which would grant Dreamers 10 years of legal residence status if they meet certain requirements. They would then receive permanent green cards after completing at least two years of higher education or military service, or after working for three years.
The measure would provide long-awaited clarity to the millions of Dreamers who have been caught in legal limbo amid years of partisan maneuvering on the issue. The Obama administration granted work permits to many of them through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but President Trump ended the program in late 2017. Its fate now rests with the Supreme Court, which may take up the issue in the coming months.
Democrats are proposing the bill as Trump and Republicans argue that more needs to be done to address the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, underscoring that the parties are approaching the issue of immigration overhaul from markedly different perspectives.
Freshman Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., the son of Eritrean refugees, prompted cheers and a standing ovation from Democrats as he quoted former President Ronald Reagan to defend immigration as integral to the fabric of America. He also described Dreamers as "young people all across our country who know no other home but the United States."
"We can't allow these young people to continue to live in fear, to be at risk," Neguse said.
Versions of the bill have been introduced in Congress over the years but never passed despite support among members of both parties. The debate over the legislation has been emotional at times; in 2010, more than 60 young people crowded into the Senate gallery to push for passage of a previous version of the bill known as the Dream Act. The chamber ultimately defeated the measure.
"This is legislation that is consistent with who we are as Americans, as an aspirational people, as a nation of immigrants and as a place where people can come to pursue the American Dream," Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters ahead of Tuesday's vote.
Cheers erupted in the chamber when the bill got the necessary votes, as did chants of "Yes, we can." Only seven Republicans broke ranks to join all 230 Democrats present in backing the bill.
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., the lead sponsor of the current bill, noted that Tuesday will mark "the first time the Dream Act will be passed by a chamber of Congress as a top Democratic priority."
The House measure was introduced in the chamber in March. That month, two groups of senators introduced similar legislation that would protect Dreamers. One bill was written by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Durbin, D-Ill. The other was introduced by a group of Democrats, including Sens. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Dianne Feinstein of California and Tim Kaine of Virginia.
House Democratic leaders on Tuesday voiced optimism that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would bring up the legislation in the Senate.
"There should be nothing partisan or political about this legislation," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a news conference, flanked by other Democrats and supporters of the measure. "We are proud to pass it, we hope, in a bipartisan way."
But it is unlikely that the Senate will consider the bill: Hours after Hoyer spoke, McConnell and other Senate Republican leaders made no mention of the bill at their weekly news conference Tuesday afternoon.
The measure's consideration comes more than a year after the Senate rejected four competing immigration reform proposals. Among those proposals was one backed by Trump that included citizenship for Dreamers, billions of dollars in funding for the president's U.S.-Mexico border wall and changes to laws to speed up deportations, as well as sharp cuts to legal immigration.