- So in response to MacDonough's rejection,
immigration advocates and progressives are already calling
on Democrats who control the Senate to vote,
to disregard her decision and to include
the immigration provisions anyway.
The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough has decided
that Democrats' $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package
can not include a pathway to citizenship
for roughly 8 million undocumented immigrants
living inside the United States.
In a three-page memo that was released on Sunday evening,
she explained her reasoning stating that,
"Many undocumented persons live and work
in the shadows of our society out of fear of deportation.
Permanent legal status would grant them freedom to work,
freedom to travel, freedom to live openly in our society
in any state, and to reunite with their families.
And it would make them eligible in time
to apply for citizenship,
things for which there is no fiscal equivalent.
That is tremendous and enduring policy change
that dwarfs its budgetary impact.
The reasons that people risk their lives
to come to this country,
to escape from religious and political persecution,
famine, war, unspeakable violence, and lack of opportunity
in their home countries cannot be measured
in federal dollars."
MacDonough is a former immigration lawyer
who was appointed as parliamentarian
by the Democrat controlled Senate in 2012.
Her job is to interpret the rules of the chamber
and our colleagues generally consider her
to be fair and even handed in her decisions.
In this case, it is her job to determine whether or not
the budget conciliation process
can include immigration provisions
that would address the visa backlog and provide legal,
permanent status to millions of dreamers, farm workers,
TPS holders, and essential workers.
One of the primary requirements is that doing so will impact
the federal government's spending or revenue in a way
that is not nearly incidental.
Democrats argued this to be the case,
citing a report from the congressional budget office,
estimating that the budgetary cost of change
in immigration law to be more than $139 billion
over 10 years.
They also cited to our separate report,
estimating that doing so would add $1.5 trillion
to the US economy over the next decade,
and would create more than 400,000 jobs.
In her written guidance to Senators,
McDonald rejected this reasoning claiming that
legal permanent status has no federal fiscal equivalent.
Democrats also argued that there is a precedent
for including immigration provisions
in the budgetary reconciliation process,
citing a Republican Reconciliation Bill in 2005,
that was designed to address a Visa backlog.
MacDonough responded that the bill 2005 had brought
partisan support and only applied to people who were already
admissible to the US and not barred by existing law
from applying for legal status.
I know that this is not exciting or good news to hear,
and I'm making these videos as quickly as I can
to keep everyone informed
because it is still very important.
So please take a moment to like this video
and leave your comment about how you're feeling right now.
The next step is for Democrats to offer
alternative approaches that might be accepted
by the parliamentarian,
such as an update to a registry date that allows
some immigrants in the US to become permanent residents
if they have been living here long enough.
Both Senate Democrats, and President Biden have indicated
that they will have alternative plans
to get approval from MacDonough.
The details are still unavailable,
but I will report them as soon as we know them.
If you recall, from my previous video,
the role of the parliamentarian is simply
to provide guidance and the authority to decide
budget reconciliation processes is ultimately still
in the hands of Vice-President Kamala Harris.
So in response to MacDonough's rejection,
immigration advocates and progressives are already calling
on Democrats who controlled the Senate to vote,
to disregard her decision and to include
the immigration provisions anyway.
Unfortunately it's several Democrats
have already made clear that they do not want
to overrule the parliamentarian's decision
and every Democrats vote will be necessary
in order to pass this bill.
So we wait to hear what plan President Biden
and the Senate Democrats have in store for us next.
As Carrie Talbot, Deputy Director of the Immigration Hub
has said, "This is not the end of the process.
As we've said before, this is not a one-off.
We have always known that this would be a back and forth
where we would have to present several options.
What we know is true,
a path to permanent residency and citizenship
has a significant budgetary impact,
great bipartisan support, and above all it is critical
to America's recovery."
If you haven't yet seen my video explaining what's inside
the Budget Reconciliation Bill,
I'll put a link here so you can watch next.
We discuss who specifically is included in the pathway
to citizenship and the steps it takes to resolve
the Visa backlog for family employment and adversity Visas.
I will continue to release some more updates
as more news becomes available.
So if you haven't yet subscribed, make sure to do so now.
Click to watch this video and I'll see you there.