Dem bill would grant green cards to undocumented 9/11 workers 

The head of the House Democratic Caucus will introduce legislation next week that would grant permanent legal status to hundreds of undocumented workers who toiled in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), who represents parts of Queens and the Bronx, says granting green cards to those workers is a commonsense reward for their help responding to the nation’s deadliest terrorist attack.

“These workers provided critical services in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and suffered from exposure to airborne toxins and other hazards,” Crowley’s office said in announcing the bill. “Yet many of them still lack legal immigration options and have lived in fear of deportation from the country they served.”

{mosads}The bill arrives as the Trump administration is stepping up its enforcement operations against undocumented immigrants — a central theme of the president’s successful campaign. Among those recently targeted for deportation is Carlos Cardona, an undocumented immigrant from Colombia who volunteered to clear debris at Ground Zero following 9/11.

Last month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) pardoned Cardona for a 27-year-old drug conviction, in hopes the move would undermine the administration’s rationale for deporting Cardona, who owns a Queens-based construction company. 

Trump administration officials have said repeatedly that they intend to focus their enforcement efforts on undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of crimes or otherwise pose a threat to public safety. 

On Friday, however, ProPublica reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) adopted a policy in February clarifying that no one in the country illegally is immune from deportation.

“Effective immediately, ERO officers will take enforcement action against all removable aliens encountered in the course of their duties,” Matthew Albence, who heads ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), wrote to his officers on Feb. 21. 

Congress has already stepped in to provide certain benefits to undocumented immigrants who helped with the 9/11 clean-up efforts. In 2010, Congress enacted the James Zadroga Act, which extended compensation and health benefits to the victims of 9/11 and workers who responded to it, including those living in the country illegally. The law was reauthorized at the end of 2015.

Crowley’s new green-card push faces much higher hurdles, largely because any move to legalize undocumented immigrants is anathema to most of the Republicans who control both chambers of Congress. Crowley’s office said Friday that no Republicans have signaled interest in his bill.

Crowley’s proposal, which he’ll introduce as early as Monday, when Congress returns from the Fourth of July recess, would affect between 1,000 and 2,000 people, his office said Friday.