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Senate Parliamentarian Nixes Democrats’ Immigration Plan

Senate Parliamentarian Nixes Democrats’ Immigration Plan

Democrats’ plan to use President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion economic package to alter U.S. immigration laws was rejected by the Senate parliamentarian for the third time, likely dealing the effort a knockout blow.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough told lawmakers Thursday that a provision providing temporary deportation protections for some unauthorized immigrants doesn’t comply with strict Senate rules enabling the broader package to clear with only Democratic support. Those rules require each item in a so-called reconciliation bill to be largely budgetary in nature.

MacDonough said in her determination that the Democrats’ plan to provide so-called immigration parole status to about 6.5 million undocumented immigrants was nearly as expansive as earlier proposals she turned down. She also pointed out it changed the way parole works, requiring the Homeland Security secretary to provide work authorizations, travel documents and other benefits rather than allowing discretionary use of that authority.

“These are substantial policy changes with lasting effects just like those we previously considered and outweigh the budgetary impact,” she wrote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats said in a joint statement they’re not giving up.

“We strongly disagree with the Senate parliamentarian’s interpretation of our immigration proposal, and we will pursue every means to achieve a path to citizenship in the Build Back Better Act,” Schumer, along with Dick Durbin of Illinois, Bob Menendez of New Jersey and three other Democrats, said in the statement.

Durbin told reporters that party leaders don’t have any immediate alternative approach on immigration.

“We’re disappointed and we’re considering what options remain,” Durbin said Thursday night. 

The decision is another serious setback for Senate Democrats, who are abandoning efforts to pass the economic package by the end of the year amid continued objections from West Virginia Senate Joe Manchin, whose vote is pivotal in the 50-50 Senate. 

There is broad support among congressional Democrats for immigration law changes that aid the undocumented. The provision could have helped unify the party after months of bitter infighting between moderates and progressives over other parts of the bill.

In the House, Democrats included language providing the deportation protections in the economic package that passed that chamber on Nov. 19 on a 220-213 vote. 

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee,  Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said the parliamentarian’s decision was appropriate given the broad scope of what he called a “mass amnesty” approach put forth by Democrats.

“The parliamentarian’s ruling is just an affirmation of the obvious,” Grassley said in a statement. “Trying to shoehorn radical immigration policy provisions into reconciliation has always been about avoiding bipartisan negotiation and compromise.”

Three members of the House’s Congressional Hispanic Caucus -- Chuy Garcia, Lou Correa and Adriano Espaillat -- have threatened to vote against the final broad tax and spending plan unless immigration law changes are included. The House must consider the bill a second time after the Senate acts on its own version.

“I am beyond disappointed,” Correa told a reporter. “I’m completely in shock.”

Under Pressure

Senate Democratic leaders are under enormous pressure from immigrant advocacy groups to plow ahead with an immigration provision despite the ruling. They are calling on Schumer to call a vote to disregard the parliamentarian’s position -- something that Schumer hasn’t endorsed and that Manchin says he won’t go along with. 

Democrats pursued the pared-down proposal offering what is called immigration “parole” shielding millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation after the parliamentarian rejected two previous proposals that included a pathway to citizenship. 

Parole has been allowed under federal immigration law since the 1950s, and has been used by presidents in both parties to bring in a number of groups to the U.S. Those included Cuban refugees in the 1960s and Afghan nationals currently settling in the U.S. after the recent chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops there. 

Once paroled in the U.S., people can apply for work permits and for “advance parole,” which allows them to travel outside the U.S. and return. Some people can later adjust their status and obtain a green card. 

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office this month said a similar provision in the House bill would provide about 6.5 million people who have been in the U.S. since at least 2011 with parole status. About 2 million immigrants who wouldn’t otherwise obtain lawful permanent resident status would become eligible as immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, and another 1 million would be eligible earlier than they would be under current law.

The smaller proposal is a far cry from the 2020 campaign pledges of Biden and congressional Democrats, when they proposed a pathway to citizenship for roughly 11 million people living illegally in the U.S. That expansive approach quickly fell by the wayside early this year, amid opposition from moderate House Democrats and Republicans in both chambers. 

The ongoing migrant crisis at the southern border with Mexico has only hardened opposition, and bipartisan talks in the Senate for a scaled back immigration bill collapsed in the summer.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.