Biden looks to offer relief to undocumented spouses of US citizens
Plus: How Chuck Schumer will try to reestablish the bump stock ban and why Cory Booker is so frustrated Senate Republicans blocked his party’s IVF legislation.

President Joe Biden will reportedly announce a new executive action as early as Tuesday to protect undocumented spouses of US citizens from deportation and allow them to legally work in the country.
Under current US law, immigrants who unlawfully entered the country must leave the country and face a 10-year ban in most cases before lawfully reentering the country. The action would provide spouses who have lived in the US for at least a decade with a permanent resident card without leaving the country. It could also include a streamlined process for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as Dreamers, to obtain the waiver required to apply for a work visa
The White House will host an event to celebrate the 12-year anniversary of DACA, the Obama-era policy that allows eligible undocumented immigrants to receive a renewable two-year protection from deportation and a work permit to gain employment in the US.
“Every Dreamer I’ve spoken to—both in my district and around the country—is feeling dejected, frightened and deeply concerned about their future,” Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), told me last week. “It is an absolute injustice for them to continue to be on the brink all the time and to have to live with that uncertainty.”
The expected action would come just over two weeks after President Biden signed a separate order that empowers him to suspend asylum claims at the executive border when daily unauthorized crossings 2,500. The asylum ban would expire in 14 calendar days once daily encounters are less than 1,500 for seven consecutive days.
The previous action was a response to a failed effort to pass a Senate-negotiated bipartisan border policy crackdown that Republicans demanded but former President Donald Trump ultimately opposed to prevent Biden from notching a political win on one of his most treacherous issues ahead of the general election in 141 days.
The Senate bill did not include provisions for Dreamers, a point of contention for critics of both the executive order and the proposed border deal. (The Department of Health and Human Services finalized a rule last month that would enable 100,000 DACA recipients to gain health insurance under the Affordable Care Act beginning in November.) But the president foreshadowed additional action when he signed the first order earlier this month.
“For those who say the steps I’ve taken are too strict, I say to you that [the patience and good will] of the American people are wearing thin right now. Doing nothing is not an option. We have to act,” Biden said. “I take these steps not to walk away from who we are as Americans but to make sure we preserve who we are for future generations to come. In the weeks ahead—and I mean the weeks ahead—I will speak to how we can make our immigration more fair and just.”
The order is almost certain to face an immediate court challenge. Even if it survives legal scrutiny, Trump could undo the action with the stroke of a pen if he wins a second term.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has dedicated more than two decades to advancing the Dream Act, which would put young undocumented immigrants on a path to citizenship. There are three versions of the legislation pending in the current Congress, including one that incorporates the bill into the American Dream and Promise Act, a similar bill led by Durbin.
Escobar introduced a bill last year—the Dignity Act—that includes the Dream and Promise Act, but also increases border security and other provisions that she acknowledges give Democrats heartburn.
“I think we should absolutely uplift our DACA recipients and Dreamers. But I think we also have to understand that in order to get them where they need to be, we may have to compromise on other issues,” she said. “My sense of urgency comes from wanting to give DACA recipients peace and knowledge that they’re safe and that we value them and that we want to protect them and get them across the finish line so they can achieve citizenship, which they so rightfully deserve.”
Schumer fast-tracks Senate bump stock ban
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced on Sunday he would seek unanimous consent this week to ban bump stocks, which turn semiautomatic weapons into a fully automatic firearm that fires bullets more rapidly after the Supreme Court overturned a Trump-era ban on the devices last week.
“By undoing this most common-sense safety ban on deadly bump stocks, this MAGA Supreme Court has shown the American people how dangerously to the far-right they have gone, Schumer said during a press conference in New York. “And the Senate can help restore this public safety rule. Will [Republicans] allow it to go forward or will they cower to MAGA and hurt the American people.”
Any one senator can thwart the request and it is expected to fail.
“Fully automatic weapons are regulated differently with semiautomatic weapons, so it’s clearly a workaround,” Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, told me last week. “And it was the last administration that regulatorily prohibited the sale of those bumped stocks. The way to fix that is to codify that regulation, and we would be light years ahead and our communities would be safer.”
The Trump administration regulated bump stocks in 2018 after a 64-year-old gunman killed more than 60 people and wounded at least 413 from the 32nd floor of his Las Vegas hotel a year earlier with guns outfitted with bump stocks. The high court ruled the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms exceeded its legal authority by classifying a bump stock as a machine gun.
The decision comes as the Supreme Court has faced relentless scrutiny since the Dobbs opinion overturning Roe v. Wade leaked almost two years ago. Revelations have surfaced of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito accepting undisclosed luxury trips, among other scandals.
“I think the Supreme Court’s extreme view and application of the jurisprudence that exists today has had deeply dangerous consequences for the American people,” House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) told me. “And one would hope that the court take a moment and step back and recognize that its decisions have real-world impacts that are impacting families across the country each day.”
Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—the ranking and vice-ranking members of the House Oversight Committee hosted a roundtable last Tuesday on the influence of dark money networks and conservative megadonors on the federal judicial system. The next day, Senate Republicans blocked swift passage of an enforceable code of conduct for all Supreme Court justices.
The Supreme Court is expected to decide in the coming days whether a federal law that forbids individuals under a domestic violence protective order from owning a gun violates the Second Amendment.
Booker laments failed IVF vote
Less than a week after Senate Republicans blocked a procedural vote to protect access to all forms of FDA-approved birth control, a Democratic effort to enshrine into law a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization and other reproductive health technologies failed as well.
But Sen. Schumer said he and his caucus were undeterred and would continue to force votes on reproductive health legislation ahead of an election where Democrats predict the issue will feature front and center.
“Stay tuned,” he told reporters last week. “There are more coming. This is an issue so important, not just to us, but to the women and men of America. And we’re not going to stop fighting and you’re going to see some more things coming and more votes coming.”
The blocked legislation included four proposals introduced by Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). The vote was in response to a February Alabama Supreme Court ruling that decided embryos created through IVF are considered children. Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced a bill last month that would pull Medicaid funding from states that ban IVF and providers have since resumed services after the Alabama state legislature passed a retroactive law to provide civil and criminal immunity to providers and patients for the destruction or damage to embryos.
But Democrats and reproductive freedom groups say the Britt-Cruz proposal is insufficient because it doesn’t require providers to offer the procedure or prevent states from banning it and the Alabama high court decision is a cautionary tale of the lengths red states can go to erode reproductive rights in a post-Dobbs America.
Sen. Booker said the failed vote would prevent service members from freezing their eggs before they go off to their military service and deny low-income families the miracle of IVF by stopping insurance companies from expanding coverage.
“I think when I see the families that I interact with on a regular basis, who have struggled with reproductive care, to see the vulnerability that many women endure, like Black women in particular, how so few people seem to understand that reproductive issues can be life or death for so many communities,” Booker told me. “It’s just something I can’t not be leading on because of the urgency that I see as the right wing seems to be gathering steam around these issues.”
The two-term senator added that he has engaged in good-faith conversations with Senate Republicans on the bill.
“I do think there’s a sincere belief that protections should move forward and we should expand opportunity to more families in a more equal way. But what’s frustrating me is to see the voice and the strength, in terms of influence, of people that represent a very small minority of views,” he said. “Most Republican women support IVF overwhelmingly. The legislation we put on the floor today is widely supported in America. This is not a partisan issue. And it's just very frustrating to see if it'd be blocked for no good reason.”
Committee Corner
OUAH’s guide to the top congressional committee events this week (all times Eastern):
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on the immediate and long-term challenges facing public school teachers (Thursday, 9 a.m.).
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a business meeting to consider several nominations and the reauthorization of a community policing grant program (Thursday, 10 a.m.)
The Senate Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on the origins of COVID-19 (Wednesday, 10 a.m.).
View from the White House
Biden’s week ahead:
Monday: The president will hold a bilateral meeting with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of NATO.
Tuesday: President Biden will host an event at the White House marking the 12th anniversary of DACA before traveling with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden to McLean, Virginia for a campaign fundraiser. From McLean, the Bidens will travel to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Thursday: The president will travel from Rehoboth Beach to Camp David.
Harris’s week ahead:
Monday: The vice president will receive briefings and hold internal meetings with her staff this morning before speaking on conflict-related sexual violence at the White House in the afternoon.