Schumer wants amnesty for 11 million migrants

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made a fresh pitch for amnesty Wednesday when he claimed the U.S. is ‘short of workers’ so Congress needs to pass a ‘path to citizenship’ for ‘however many undocumented there are here’. 

‘We’re short of workers, we have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to,’ the New York Democrat reasoned. 

‘The only way we’re going to have a great future is if we welcome and embrace immigrants… get a path to citizenship for all 11 million or however many there are here.’ 

The undocumented immigrant population is hard to track, at the end of 2021 anti-immigration group FAIR put the number at 15.5 million. But in fiscal year 2022, which ended in October, there were 2.76 million unlawful immigration encounters at the southern border, not counting ‘got-aways’ who went undetected by law enforcement. 

Schumer made a fresh pitch for amnesty Wednesday when he claimed the U.S. is ‘short of workers’ so Congress needs to pass a ‘path to citizenship’ for ‘however many undocumented there are here’

‘We’re short of workers, we have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to,’ the New York Democrat reasoned

Republicans made the southern border one of three main focuses – along with crime and inflation – in the midterm elections.  

Schumer also pushed back on the narrative that immigration brings crime into America. 

‘Immigrants, undocumented, documented have a higher rate of employment and a lower rate of crime than average Americans — so all the BS spread by these right-wing people, the nastiness, it’s just not true. It just aggravates me!’

Schumer told reporters at the Capitol ahead of the press conference that he hoped to get immigration reform moved through the upper chamber during the lame duck session before January. 

In the next Congress, Democrats will hold on to a narrow majority of either one or two seats, depending on Georgia’s runoff election. 

‘Now let’s roll up our sleeves and get this done. American sent a clear message [in the midterms]. They rejected the deeply anti-immigrant message of the MAGA Republicans,’ Schumer said. 

Senate Democrats are setting their sights on legislation to offer a pathway to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, who make up some 600,000 in the U.S. 

DACA has faced a number of legal challenges with the Trump administration trying to end the program before the Supreme Court blocked it from doing so in 2020. 

Last month, a circuit court ruled that DACA was illegal but directed a lower court to consider a rule by the Biden administration that would allow it to remain in place for current recipients without accepting new ones. The case could make its way before the Supreme Court, where it could face an uphill battle with the conservative majority.  

Republicans in the past have expressed openness to legislation to protect Dreamers, as DACA recipients are known, but have demanded security measures to ‘close the border’ in exchange for support. 

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said that in private, at least 10 Republicans express interest in granting citizenship to Dreamers, the number that would be needed to pass a Senate filibuster. 

‘We’re calling on 10 of our Republican colleagues to have the courage to do publicly — vote — consistent with what they tell us behind closed doors,’ Padilla said. 

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Judiciary Committee that handles immigration legislation, said he is asking Republicans to meet with him to discuss a DACA bill, calling it a ‘high priority’ for December. 

In a hint at who could vote with Democrats, immigration advocacy groups have scored meetings with Republicans Pat Toomey, Pa., John Cornyn, Texas, Mike Rounds, South Dakota, and Mike Lee, Utah, this week, according to Politico.