Official records from the U.S. Senate or major news outlets reporting on legislative activities

Durbin Proposes Amnesty for 11 Million Undocumented Immigrants Amid Deportation Cost Concerns

Dec 10, 2024, 04:11 PM

Senator Dick Durbin, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called for mass amnesty for undocumented immigrants who do not pose a threat to the United States. During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Durbin argued that deporting all undocumented immigrants would be prohibitively expensive, costing hundreds of billions of dollars, and suggested focusing deportation efforts on those who are a danger to America while providing a pathway to legal status for others. According to the American Community Survey (ACS), there were approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. as of 2022, though some estimates suggest the number could be as high as 65 million.