White House unveils Biden's immigration bill, including an eight-year path to citizenship

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill will introduce President Joe Biden's immigration plan in Congress on Thursday, including a proposal for a path to citizenship for roughly 11 million migrants living without legal status in the United States.

The plan will include all the elements of the comprehensive immigration legislation proposal that Biden introduced on his first day in office, Biden administration officials said.

The legislation, entitled the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, includes an eight-year pathway to citizenship for nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants, a shorter process to legal status for agriculture workers and recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and an enforcement plan that includes deploying technology to patrol the border.

The bill also calls for $4 billion over four years "to confront corruption, enhance security and foster prosperity" in migrant communities, an administration official said. In addition, the bill also lays out a plan to create refugee processing in Central America to discourage migrants from trying to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border.

"The prior administration was solely focused on the wall and did nothing to address the root causes of why people are coming to the southwest border, causing a humanitarian crisis," a Biden administration official said.

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., in the House of Representatives and by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.

Passing one large immigration reform package will be a challenge. Several lawmakers have noted that they will try to push through legislation that already passed in the House, along with the legislation for Biden's proposal.