US House passes bill to protect ‘Dreamers’

The US House of Representatives on Thursday passed bills providing a pathway to citizenship for immigrants nicknamed "Dreamers," who are living illegally in the United States after entering as children, as well as for a large number of immigrant farmworkers. 

The two measures now go to the deeply divided Senate where they face a difficult climb.

By a vote of 228-197, the Democratic-controlled House passed the Dreamers bill with only nine Republicans supporting it. The legislation would allow Dreamers to live, work, serve in the military and continue their educations without the threat of deportation and to eventually win US citizenship if they meet a set of requirements

The House then approved the farmworker bill, 247-174, to shield about 1 million immigrant laborers, many of whom have been in the United States for decades, from deportation.

Both measures are among several attempts by Democrats to reverse former President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration policies.

Dreamers, numbering around 1.8 million young immigrants, made the dangerous journey on their own, with parents or hired hands, often to escape gang violence in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries.