周四，众议院今年首次投票，为小时候被带到美国的无证移民提供获得公民身份的途径。华盛顿就乔·拜登总统对寻求从墨西哥进入美国的移民激增的处理进行了更大规模的辩论。
这项措施，以及另一项为无证农场工人提供法律地位的法案，在国会上届会议上由民主党通过，但在共和党控制的参议院搁置。现在，民主党希望看到一个不同的结果，他们的政党控制了上议院——尽管尚不清楚这些法案是否能获得推进所需的十名共和党人的支持。
《美国梦与承诺法案》以228票对197票通过，该法案将为被称为“梦想家”的年轻无证移民和其他居住在该国的临时受保护者提供获得公民身份的途径。
九名共和党人与民主党人一起投票通过了这项措施，比该提案在国会上届会议上获得的共和党票数多一票。
据其民主党支持者称，该提案将影响约340万人。
汤姆·布伦纳/路透社，档案
一个支持DACA梦想家的标志出现在美国最高法院的台阶上
华盛顿众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔(Pramila Jayapal)表示:“这些人在沉默中生活了太长时间。，周四说。
“对我们来说，这不仅是通过立法的一天，也是值得庆祝的一天，”加州众议院议长南希·佩洛西在投票前的一次活动中说。
Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
众议院议长南希·佩洛西在美国国会大厦参加关于移民的新闻发布会
众议院还通过了《农业劳动力现代化法案》，该法案可以为100多万无证农业工人建立一个申请法律地位的系统，并在众议院受到民主党和共和党的称赞，他们在2019年首次起草了两党协议。
该法案以247票对174票获得通过，30名共和党人投票支持民主党，一名民主党人缅因州众议员Jared Golden投票支持共和党人反对该法案。它在参议院面临着不确定的前进道路。
华盛顿共和党众议员丹·纽豪斯(Dan Newhouse)表示:“家政工人根本没有足够的兴趣来完成这些工作。”。称该提案是“有针对性的”和“我们的农民和牧场主需要的两党解决方案”
大多数共和党人周四利用辩论时间批评拜登政府对越来越多的移民试图越过西南边境进入美国的反应。
“这是拜登的边界危机，”共和党领袖凯文·麦卡锡在会议上说。"到目前为止，拜登政府和国会民主党人没有提供任何解决方案."
阿德里斯·拉蒂夫/路透社
马文和白兰度，都是来自危地马拉的一岁寻求庇护的男孩，从他们的
据政府官员称，截至周三，有9562名无人陪伴的儿童被关押在卫生和公众服务部的设施中，目前约有4500名儿童被边境巡逻队拘留，在那里他们被处理并转移到HHS的收容所。
共和党人辩称，这一激增是由拜登政府放松特朗普政府的一些政策推动的，包括允许无人陪伴的未成年人进入该国。
拜登政府拒绝将这种情况描述为“危机”，指责特朗普对边境的处理，并表示他们继承了一个对移民数量增加毫无准备的系统。
周二，国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯(Alejandro Mayorkas)在美国广播公司(ABC)的“早安美国”(早安美国)节目中告诉美国广播公司新闻部(ABC News)的乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯(George Stephanopoulos)。
众议院多数党领袖、医学博士斯蒂尼·霍耶(Steny Hoyer)告诫共和党人，在控制众议院时，他们抱怨边境局势，同时拒绝将全面的移民改革提交众议院表决。
佛罗里达州共和党众议员玛丽亚·埃尔韦拉·萨拉扎(Maria Elvira Salazar)是一名大一新生，他提出了自己的共和党版《梦想与承诺法案》(Dream and Promise Act)，周三他表示，鉴于参议院的前进道路不确定，民主党人正在利用周四的投票玩弄政治。
“你不能这样和人玩，”她谈到寻求合法身份和公民身份的无证移民时说。
但她最终投票支持该法案，告诉记者她“想向民主党人传递正确的信息，即我愿意与他们合作。”
参议院司法委员会主席迪克·德宾·迪尔说，移民改革“仍然是一件很难实现的事情”。，星期三说。他指出，众议院就几项有限的移民措施进行了投票，而不是拜登政府提出的全面提案，该提案将为1100万无证移民提供获得公民身份的途径。
“我正站在共和党一边，”杜宾说。“他们中的许多人表示，他们关注的是南部边境。我认为这必须成为对话的一部分。”
政府立法机关林赛·格雷厄姆共和党人表示，如果不讨论边境安全和拜登政府对孤身未成年人的处理，共和党人就很难参与移民改革谈判。
“在他通过有效的政策重新获得控制权之前，很难对梦想家或其他人做任何事情，”他周三表示。"在这种情况下，任何人合法化都会导致更多的非法移民."
House passes pathway to citizenship for 'Dreamers'
The House on Thursday voted for the first time this year to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, amid a larger debate in Washington over President Joe Biden’s handling of the surge in migrants seeking to cross into the country from Mexico.
The measure, and another bill to provide legal status to undocumented farm workers, were passed by Democrats in the last session of Congress, but stalled in a GOP-controlled Senate. Now, Democrats hope to see a different result with their party in control of the upper chamber – though it is still unclear if the bills can garner the support of the ten Republicans needed to advance.
The American Dream and Promise Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for young undocumented migrants known as “Dreamers” and other people living in the country with temporary protected status, passed in a 228-197 vote.
Nine Republicans voted with Democrats to pass the measure, one more than the number of GOP votes the proposal received in the last session of Congress.
According to its Democratic sponsors, the proposal would impact roughly 3.4 million people.
"These people have lived in silence for far too long," Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said Thursday.
"For us, this is a day of not only passing legislation, but a cause for celebration," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at an event before the vote.
The House also passed The Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which could create a system for more than 1 million undocumented farm workers to apply for legal status and was praised on the floor by Democrats and Republicans who first crafted the bipartisan agreement in 2019.
The bill passed in a 247-174 vote, with 30 Republicans voting with Democrats, and a single Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voting with Republicans against the bill. It faces an uncertain path forward in the Senate.
"There simply isn’t enough interest among domestic workers to get these jobs done,” Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said Thursday, calling the proposal the “targeted” and “bipartisan solution our farmers and ranchers need.”
The majority of Republican used debate time Thursday to criticize the Biden administration’s response to the growing number of migrants trying to enter the United States across the southwestern border.
"It is the Biden border crisis,” GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on the floor. "So far, the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats aren’t providing any solutions."
As of Wednesday, 9,562 unaccompanied children are being held in Department of Health and Human Services facilities, and roughly 4,500 currently in Border Patrol custody, where they are processed and transferred to the HHS shelters, according to administration officials.
Republicans have argued that the surge was prompted by the Biden administration’s unwinding of some of the Trump administration’s policies, including allowing unaccompanied minors to enter the country.
The Biden administration, which has refused to describe the situation as a “crisis,” has blamed Trump’s handling of the border and said they inherited a system that was unprepared for the increased number of migrants.
"Give us the time to rebuild the system that was entirely dismantled in the prior administration, and we have in fact begun to rebuild that system," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., admonished Republicans for complaining about the situation at the border while refusing to bring comprehensive immigration reform to the House floor for a vote when they controlled the House.
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., a freshman who has put forward his own GOP version of the Dream and Promise Act, said on Wednesday that Democrats were playing politics with the Thursday votes, given the uncertain path forward in the Senate.
"You cannot be playing with people this way," she said of the undocumented immigrants seeking legal status and a path to citizenship.
But she ended up voting for the bill, telling reporters that she "wanted to send the right message to Democrats that I am willing to work with them."
Immigration reform "is still a very difficult thing to achieve," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Wednesday. He noted that the House voted on several limited immigration measures rather than the comprehensive proposal pushed by the Biden administration that would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.
"I’m reaching out on the Republican side," Durbin said. "Many of them have said they are focused on the southern border. And I think that has to be part of the conversation."
Sen.Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suggested that it would be challenging for Republicans to engage in negotiations over immigration reform without discussing border security and the handling of the unaccompanied minors by the Biden administration.
"Until he regains control with policies that work, it's going to be hard to do anything on Dreamers or anything else," he said Wednesday. "Legalizing anybody under these circumstances would lead to even more illegal immigration."
