Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), and 90 of her Democratic House colleagues asked the Senate to include immigration reform proposals previously cut from the Buildback Better Act back into the bill.
The legislators are advocating forUndocumented immigrants can apply for citizenship, including Dreamers, Temporary Protection Status (TPS) holders and farm and essential workers. The House passed a reconciliation bill that provides opportunities for temporary work visas and deportation reliefFor undocumented individuals, but no permanent solutions.
“When Congress promises ‘immigration reform,’ as it has done throughout the negotiation process, our party must fully deliver on that promise,” the lawmakers wrote. “For decades, immigrants have sought relief from the precarity of jumping from one temporary status to another in the only country they can call home. Another temporary status would merely extend this precarity.”
Without legal pathways to citizenship, the lives of the millions ofMany undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. remain at the mercy of different employers and presidential administrations.
While Republican presidents have more openly used racist rhetoric against immigrants, Democratic presidents are often not “pro-immigrant” as the party purports to be; Joe Biden, for instance, has Clearly, the number of people who are interested in it has risen dramaticallyThe number of immigrants detained under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), during his tenure.Asylum seekers are deportedEn masse, at the southern frontier, many of them to Haiti which is experiencing mass political-and environmental instability. Experts in human rights former State Department employees have slammed Biden’s deportations as inhumane and immoral. And under Barack Obama, over 2.5 million people were deported — more than any in U.S. history.
Democratic staff are meeting withThe parliamentarian will discuss Tuesday the current immigration proposal in Bill.
When the September bill was passed, lawmakers removed the citizenship pathway proposal. The Senate parliamentarianThe court ruled that the proposal would not have any significant impact on budget. To be included in budget reconciliation, proposals must relate to the federal budget. This allows Senate to pass bills with a simple majority vote.
Contrary to the parliamentarian’s ruling, however, reports by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) economists say that immigration reform does affect the budget significantly; not only would the proposal move the country’s immigration policies in a more humane direction, but it would also have significant and positive impacts on the economy, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Whether or not Democrats decide to include the proposal is “a question of political will,” the letter read. “We do understand that the Senate Parliamentarian has issued a memorandum dismissing — despite evidence to the contrary — the budgetary impact of providing a pathway to citizenship,” the lawmakers continued. “But the role of the Parliamentarian is an advisory one, and the Parliamentarian’s opinion is not binding.”
Indeed, the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling on the budget reconciliation process can be overturned by the vice president. This was a point made by progressives This was earlier in the year when the parliamentarian said that a proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour couldn’t fit into the reconciliation process, despite evidence showing otherwise. The Biden administration was opposed to bucking the parliamentarian’s recommendation at the time, much to progressive lawmakers’ chagrin.
Democrats have another option at their disposal if they’re dedicated to including the immigration reform proposals: They could replace the parliamentarian with someone else, which is what Republicans did in 2001 in order to pass a series of tax cuts under George W. Bush. This process can be slow, but lawmakers claim they are eager for the bill to be passed soon.
Democrats could benefit politically if they choose to include the immigration proposals back into their legislation. Although many people are unaware of the obscure and archaic laws regarding budget reconciliation, polling shows that the majority of respondents agree. is in favor ofCreating pathways to citizenship for Dreamers and TPS holders, as well as undocumented workers. Data For Progress discovered that 80 percent of Democrats, 71 per cent of independents and 55 per cent of Republicans support such proposals.
