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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Groups “Floored” by Biden Immigration Proposal

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Wednesday, January 20, 2021   

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - On his first day in office, President Joe Biden will press for bold immigration reform, proposing a path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants.

The proposal would apply to people who have a clean criminal record and were in the United States before Jan. 1. If approved, this would be the first so-called "mass legalization" since 1986, during the Reagan administration.

Carlos Guevara, associate director for immigration policy for the group Unidos US, said there's a lot of pent-up demand for change in the immigration system.

"We're pleased, and frankly floored a little bit, by how visionary this bill appears to be," he said. "The path to citizenship of eight years - that is the fastest that we have ever seen."

California is home to 2 million undocumented immigrants, 200,000 DACA recipients and 55,000 people who hold Temporary Protected Status - all of whom could benefit from the Biden proposal. Opponents have said it amounts to amnesty for people who have broken U.S. immigration laws.

Cynthia Buiza, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, described herself as "cautiously optimistic" about the bill's potential. She noted that the Biden administration has so many crises to attend to, and his party only has a slim majority in the Senate.

"We're all for it," she said, "but we want a level of seriousness, the political will - because you need to get this policy through Congress."

The proposal also would make everyone eligible for COVID vaccinations, regardless of immigration status. It also would make more people in mixed-status families eligible for pandemic relief, and would implement job protections in industries that employ a lot of immigrant workers.


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