46th President Joe Biden has jumped straight into political action since his inauguration on Jan. 20. One of his first proposed bills was a step towards an easier path towards citizenship for immigrants. The proposal of this bill sent a message that this issue was a top priority for him considering this was done his first day in office.

   Biden’s proposal includes a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants in our country, expanded refugee resettlement, and more technology deployed to the border. He also hopes to offer more humane alternatives to immigrant detention. 

   This bill will allow young immigrants, “Dreamers,” such as certain farmworkers and immigrants under the Temporary Protected Status to immediately be eligible for green cards and then later citizenship within three years. 

 Biden also wants to put forth an effort to reunite families that have been separated at the border. More than 5,4000 children have been separated from their parents since July 2007. 

   It is very difficult to reunite these children with their parents because of the government’s tracking systems. The current system has volunteers going door to door in Guatemala and Honduras to help find children’s parents. In 2017, Trump’s Administration stopped allowing children from these countries to seek asylum in the United States, which Biden intends to change. These are all big issues that Biden is addressing and taking action to solve. 

   The bill was very bold and received backlash considering how divisive the topic of immigration is in politics. The bill would need 60 votes to make it through the Senate. When Senator Robert Menendez spoke with reporters at an American Business Immigration Coalition event, he stated that he would need to bring at least nine republicans to agree with the bill.

   Now  the White House is weighing the option of taking a secondary path of doing it piece by piece. However, it has been made very clear that Biden prioritizes making changes to our immigration system. But, this will not be an easy task.