Senate Democrats introduced a bill on September 28 that  proposes a simpler but more complete way for  the legal conquest of citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have been waiting for decades for resolution of  their cases, as well as  millions of immigrants who have entered the country legally, but who suffer from years of waiting for the legal definition of their immigration status.

The bill accompanying the “Renewal of Immigration Provisions immigration act 1929” was introduced in the House by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) in July, where it now has 60 co-sponsors, all Democrats.

According to the Latino Rebels, “The immigration registry bill is just two pages long, but its social and economic impact would be immense. Eight million undocumented immigrants would be eligible for green cards. The bill would also help legal immigrants by clearing much of the green card backlog and protecting many documented dreamers, mostly from India”.

“Our outdated immigration system is hurting countless people and holding back America’s economy”, said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), a cosponsor of the bill along with fellow Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (IL), Elizabeth Warren (MA), and Ben Ray Luján (NM).

Registry was one of the three options put to the Senate Parliamentarian during last year’s negotiations around the Build Back Better Act, which ultimately didn’t pass. Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-IL), and Lou Correa (D-CA) led the charge for registry in the House as Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) did in the Senate.

“The new Senate bill would create a rolling registry for immigrants who have been in the U.S. for at least seven years to come forward and register for a green card.

Registry creates no new programs but instead provides immigrants the opportunity to achieve permanent legal status in the U.S. without the complexity and hassle of previous relief efforts that have ultimately failed in Congress over the last few decades”, according to the same publication.

Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA), one of the bill’s cosponsors, referred to the last major immigrant aid bill to pass Congress, the Immigration Reform and Control Act which was sanctioned by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and which provided “a legal pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants during the late eighties”.

For Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, “This is an opportunity that we’re giving Congress to legalize our community. It sets a framework so that we never are in a situation again, where we have this ballooning undocumented population”.