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Bacon Proposes Green Cards Without Citizenship
Another update from the bipartisan migrant policy working group in the House.
Pablo Manríquez
November 19, 2024
WASHINGTON — Rep. Don Bacon is proposing what he describes as a new green card category that would grant qualifying migrants access to a permanent residency program, but without offering an eventual pathway to full U.S. citizenship.
“But your kids can become citizens,” said Bacon, outlining the new status proposal under discussion in a bipartisan migrant policy working group. Bacon, a four-term Republican from Nebraska, joined the group last month as a third GOP negotiator alongside Rep. Morgan Luttrell of Texas and Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington.
Leading the Democratic side of the negotiations is Rep. Tom Suozzi of New Jersey. “I’ve been really impressed with Suozzi,” Bacon said of working with his Democratic colleague. “I feel he’s taken some compromises I didn’t expect already. In other words, I think he’s in the right spot to get a good deal. A lot of times there’s a gap, and I think he’s right where he should be.”
Bacon, who recently won his fifth term in Congress, said the group has divided their proposal into three distinct policy categories: “border security, the asylum process, and what to do with people already here.” Migrant relief proposals, Bacon explained, fall into the third, less-defined category, where details of the proposed green card program are being worked out.
“I’m not an expert on what we call it, but it seems to me, particularly for the adults, any kind of transition to citizenship just falls apart,” Bacon said, referencing permanent residency provisions included in previous bipartisan immigration bills.
On enforcement, Bacon suggested the negotiating group has found common ground on a starting point. “We can at least agree: let’s kick out the criminals. And I think those who are otherwise legal—there may be a chance to get a green card legally, but you’ll never be a citizen. But your kids will be citizens. So we’re thinking along those lines,” he said.
