By Vivian Jones
Main Street Nashville
NASHVILLE, TN — Mayor John Cooper has joined a coalition of mayors in calling on the Biden administration to include in the next economic recovery package a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants with temporary conditional residency.
In a letter to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and House and Senate leaders this week, the group of 84 mayors from across the country requested Biden to grant a path to citizenship for “Dreamers,” individuals with temporary protected status, and all essential workers and their families.
An estimated 5 million immigrants who are in the country illegally work in construction, agriculture, food service, transportation, health care and other industries. The letter argues that those individuals deserve the path to citizenship because they “risked their lives and the lives of their families to keep our nation running during one of the most challenging periods in modern history.”
Signatories suggest that such a provision should be added during budget reconciliation.
