LOS ANGELES — Amid weeks of federal immigration enforcement activity in the Southland, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla has announced legislation intended to expand existing pathways for immigrants to obtain lawful permanent residency.
His bill would update the Immigration Act of 1929, also referred to as the “Registry Bill.” The law provides the secretary of Homeland Security the discretion to register certain individuals for lawful permanent resident status if they have been in the country since a certain date, among other requirements.
The act was established in 1929, and Congress has modified it four times — most recently during the Reagan administration in 1986.
Since then, no changes have been made. According to Padilla’s office, the Registry Bill currently allows immigrants who have lived in the U.S. since Jan. 1, 1972, to apply for and obtain a green card.
Under the proposal, immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for at least seven years, do not have a criminal record and meet all other current eligibility requirements could apply to receive a green card.
During a news conference in downtown Los Angeles July 25, Padilla criticized the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
“Americans know there’s a better path forward than the Trump administration’s cruel scapegoating of hardworking immigrants and fearmongering of California communities,” Padilla said. “We believe that if you’ve lived here for over seven years, paid taxes for years, contributed to your community for years and you don’t have a criminal record, then you deserve a pathway to legalization.”
According to the senator, this “overdue update” would provide a much-needed pathway to a green card for more than 8 million people such as Dreamers — forcibly displaced citizens or temporary protected status holders, children of long-term visa holders, essential workers and H-1B visa holders.
“My bill is a commonsense fix to our outdated immigration system and the same kind of reform that Republican President Ronald Reagan embraced four decades ago, calling it a ‘matter of basic fairness,’” Padilla said.
The bill is cosponsored by senators Cory Booker, D-New Jersey; Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois; Ben Ray Lujan, D-New Mexico; Edward J. Markey, D-Massachusetts; Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut; Patty Murray, D-Washington; Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont; Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; Adam Schiff, D-California; and Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts.
Similar proposals are being introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois; a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep Zoe Lofgren, D-California; a leading companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles, joined Padilla for his announcement. She emphasized that immigrations are more than “tears and fear.”
“We are loving human beings who fight to keep families together,” Salas said. “We dream of a better tomorrow for future generations, and we believe in an America that is a multiracial democracy where we are all welcome.”
She noted that hundreds of organizations across the country are joining the “We Belong Here” campaign — a citizenship for all campaign to advance the efforts of Padilla.
Padilla, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other local Democrats have repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration in the city and county, charging that the government is flouting legal concerns in targeting people based on skin color, and accusing the administration of reneging on its pledge to target those with criminal histories for deportation.
White House officials have denied those allegations, and point to Trump’s campaign pledges to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and to the historically low number of illegal crossings at the U.S./Mexico border since Trump took office in January.
