The past two months have been packed with federal policy developments. The Biden Administration has released over 20 executive actions on immigration and there are many major pieces of legislation introduced. This is a lot to keep track of! Below are two recent developments. Dream and Promise Act – HR6 This bipartisan bill would provide a pathway to citizenship for many immigrant young people and recipients of DACA & TPS. While it will help provide security to millions of families across the country, these steps forward come at the expense of many in our community due to their interaction with the criminal legal system. This bill is expected to come up for a vote next week! Now is the time to call your Member of Congress and urge them take bold action to pass immigration legislation that provides relief without further criminalizing immigrant communities. If this bill passes, we will rejoice with those who are able to gain permanent protection from deportation and then get back to the work of creating just and humane immigration policy that includes everyone in our community. Public Charge On March 9, 2021 the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) decided to stop defending the Trump-era public charge regulations, resulting in a dismissal of pending appeals. This means that the final judgment entered in the Northern District of Illinois on Nov 2, 2020, which vacated the public charge rule nationwide is now in effect. In other words, the Trump Administration’s 2019 public charge rule is permanently blocked, nationwide. This means the changes made to public charge under the Trump Administration are no longer in effect. It is now safe for immigrants and their families to access all healthy, nutrition, and housing programs for which they are eligible. What’s Next? As a member of the Protecting Immigrant Families coalition, PICC will continue to track development on public charge. We hope to see the Biden Administration communicate these changes to ensure all immigrant families feel safe accessing needed health and nutrition programs. We also hope to see DHS quickly develop and issue new public charge regulation to ensure this change is permanent.
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