A bill has been submitted to the US Congress that will open the way for US citizenship for 2 millions of illegal immigrants.

12 March Democrats in the US House of Representatives put forward an immigration bill that would allow more than 2 to millions of illegal immigrants to apply for US citizenship.

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If adopted, this rule will extend to "dreamers" and persons with temporary protected status in the United States (TPS), writes Duluth News Tribune.

The project, called The Dream and Promise Act, offers ways to obtain green cards and citizenship for illegal immigrants brought into the United States by children and for people currently in the country based on temporary protected status that saves them from deportation.

In announcing the bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recalled President Ronald Reagan, the Republican who signed the immigrant amnesty law in 1986. She said it is important to offer citizenship to immigrants who have lived in the United States for a long time and “who are Americans in every way.”

The main author of the bill is Member of the House of Representatives Lucille Roibal-Allard (Democrat from California).

It is unclear how many immigrants will benefit if this project is adopted, but congressmen representatives said the number of “dreamers” would be close to 2,1 million people, according to the Institute for Migration Policy.

This estimate is more than three times the number of immigrants registered as of February 2019 in the DACA program, which protects illegal immigrants brought into the country by children from deportation. Last month, participants in this program were 674 900 “Dreamers”. Trump has repeatedly criticized this program and even tried to cancel, but the court retained its effect.

The bill will also apply to people with temporary protected status, which will allow citizens of El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Somalia and other countries who fled to the US from wars and natural disasters to avoid deportation to states that have not yet recovered from these shocks. The protected status program gives these people the right to live and work in the United States, many of whom have lived in the country for several decades, but Trump intends to put an end to TPS. Although many immigrants with protected status lived for decades in the United States, more than 417 000 people who had this status as of November 2018 did not qualify for citizenship.

The bill proposed by the democrats provides for various ways of obtaining citizenship for “dreamers” and persons with temporary protected status.

“Dreamers”, according to the project, will be able to apply for 10-year-old conditional green cards if they arrived in the USA at the age of 17 years or younger and if they have been living in the country for at least four years. They will be able to get full green cards after at least two years of college, after graduating from high school, military service, or after three years in the United States.

Immigrants will not be allowed to apply for a green card if they have been convicted for crimes punished with imprisonment for more than one year, or if they have been convicted for three or more crimes involving imprisonment for more than 90 days.

This measure also provides that “dreamers” should be allowed to apply for federal financial assistance to pay for college and apply for return to the United States if they were previously deported, but meet all other requirements for a green card.

Immigrants with temporary protected status can immediately apply for a full green card if they have been in the country for at least three years, had protected status as of September 2016, and passed personal data verification.

Five years after receiving a green card, both groups can apply for citizenship.

Despite support in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, this project could face serious obstacles in the Senate, where the majority are representatives of the Republican Party. In addition, obstacles may arise from President Donald Trump on the eve of the 2020 election season of the year, which is expected to include an active debate on immigration policy.

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