Biden immigration plan speeds legalization, lags on border security

President Biden‘s immigration bill cancels penalties for future illegal immigrants, speeds legalization of those already here and increases legal immigration levels. But the bill, which lawmakers will officially introduce on Capitol Hill on Thursday, backtracks on new border security and worksite enforcement compromises that have long been seen as key parts of any serious attempt to overhaul the immigration system.

A senior administration official acknowledged that was intentional.

“This is not a bipartisan bill,” the official told reporters in previewing the legislation.

The Biden plan checks off most of the major wish-list items of immigrant-rights activists, including: funding lawyers for some migrants who want to challenge their deportations; granting speedy legal status to “Dreamers” and farm workers; pouring cash into Latin America for nation-building activities; and slashing barriers to legal immigration.

And the new bill also takes pains to reject the immigration solutions proposed by former President Trump.

Where he called for ending the diversity lottery that gives away green cards by random chance, the Biden plan increases the number from 55,000 to 80,000.

Mr. Trump’s calls to limit the chain of family migration are also rejected, and instead the Biden proposal increases chances for family migration.

And where Mr. Trump saw the U.S. system as the root cause of illegal immigration, serving as a pull factor to entice people to make the journey, Mr. Biden instead argues the push factors in Latin America are more important.