The Democratic National Convention’s (DNC) new 2024 platform, which comes as Vice President Kamala Harris is set to become the party’s new presidential nominee, endorses a mass amnesty plan that could give millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.
[RELATED: Biden Admin Offers ‘mass amnesty’ to migrants, Terminating 350,000 Asylum Cases: NYP…]
The newly approved platform includes language supporting the U.S. Citizenship Act, a bill from Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif), which failed to receive a vote after being introduced in 2021 and is currently in limbo after being reintroduced in 2023.
“The U.S. Citizenship Act would permanently increase family-sponsored and employment-based immigration. The bipartisan border legislation would increase the number of immigrant visas that are available by 250,000 over 5 years,” says the new DNC platform.
The bill changes the word “alien” to “noncitizen” in the immigration code and creates a new status for people who entered the country illegally, allowing them to become “lawful prospective immigrants,” which would eventually give them a path to citizenship and the right to vote in federal elections.
The new status will be available to any illegal immigrant who has been in the U.S. continually since the start of 2023 and who is able to pass a background check.
In order to pass a background check, the illegal immigrant needs to have committed no felonies within the past ten years, and no more than two misdemeanors in the past five years, with further exceptions provided even to those lax requirements.
If an illegal immigrant committed numerous misdemeanors on the same day, the crimes would only be counted as one, and the bill doesn’t count any misdemeanors related to cannabis, the alien’s immigration status, civil disobedience, or minor traffic offenses.
The exceptions also include any felonies related to immigration status, essentially allowing an illegal immigrant to commit numerous criminal offenses, within certain boundaries, and remain in the country with a path to citizenship. Felonies related to immigration status could include driving without a license, identity theft, or benefits fraud.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary or Attorney General is permitted to waive many of the requirements for the status change if they determine that the illegal immigrant’s removal would “adversely affect the non-citizen.”
This would seemingly apply in all cases, since being forcibly removed from the nation the illegal desired to be in could always be considered to “adversely affect” the person being removed.
The requirements for a status change are just as flexible when considering whether an individual has been physically present in the U.S. since January 1, 2023.
Any absence from the U.S. since the start of 2023 that was authorized by the DHS Secretary is exempt, along with any absence considered “brief, casual, and innocent,” which includes absences of up to 180 days in a year, a number that itself comes with numerous exceptions.
Under the myriad exceptions, even some individuals who have been previously deported from the U.S. will be welcomed back and offered lawful prospective immigrant status.
Any illegal who was deported on or after January 20, 2017, and lived in the U.S. for at least three years prior to his removal is eligible for a status change unless he re-entered illegally after the January 2023 cutoff.
The DHS Secretary can choose to grant the deportee their desired status change for numerous reasons, including the presence of family in the U.S., ill-defined “humanitarian reasons,” or if the deportee’s presence is somehow deemed to be in the public interest.
Deportees can even apply for a status change from outside the country “if the noncitizen would have been eligible for such status but for the noncitizen’s removal or departure.”
Given the abundance of exceptions to the requirements, the only thing standing in the way of millions of illegal immigrants and a new and improved status is the application itself, and a minor processing fee, a fee which can also be waived at the DHS Secretary’s discretion.
While a legal prospective immigrant, a noncitizen will enjoy multiple privileges unavailable to other illegal aliens.
With the new status, an illegal immigrant is eligible for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, allowed to work in the U.S., allowed to leave the U.S. and re-enter without a visa, will receive a Social Security number, and will be allowed to serve in the military.
An individual who receives lawful prospective immigrant status will be eligible for another status change to a lawful permanent resident after five years, which will then allow them to apply for citizenship and, ultimately, vote in elections.
The most recent official DHS estimate, which only had data up to January 2022, before the unprecedented influx of illegals under Biden’s later years in office, claimed that there were roughly 11 million illegals residing in the U.S.
Given the narrow margin of victory in swing states across the country, if even half of those illegal immigrants became citizens, they could permanently alter the nation’s political landscape.
The decision to include the U.S. Citizenship Act in the DNC platform comes at an odd time for Democrats, who have attempted to appear tougher on immigration in recent months, with President Joe Biden taking action that ostensibly cracked down on the number of illegals who can claim asylum at the southern border.
[RELATED: CBS Poll Reveals Most U.S. Voters Support Mass Deportation of Illegal Aliens…]
President Biden’s crackdown on border security came as immigration has emerged as a winning issue for Republicans, with a CBS poll showing that a majority of registered voters support mass deportations.
It is unclear what impact the radically pro-illegal immigrant bill’s inclusion in the DNC platform will have on Vice President Kamala Harris’s electoral chances.
