Senate Parliamentarian Rejects Immigration Provisions in Build Back Better Act

WASHINGTON — Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has rejected a plan by Democrats to include several immigration policy reforms in the $2 trillion Build Back Better Act currently on hold in the chamber.

MacDonough ruled against providing work permits and protections from deportation for immigrants in the U.S. unlawfully on the grounds they didn’t meet the criteria necessary for them to be part of a budget reconciliation bill.

The so-called “parole in place” policy was included in the House version of the Build Back Better Act bill that the chamber passed in November.

If implemented, it would allow approximately 6.5 million unlawful immigrants who have lived in the U.S. since January 2011 to apply for five-year work permits while effectively being exempt from deportation.

The Congressional Research Service defines reconciliation as a procedure by which Congress can implement budget resolution policies affecting mainly permanent spending and revenue programs.

It  was created under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and since its first use in 1980 it has mainly been used to implement budget resolution policies related to permanent spending and revenue programs.

Senate Democrats had been pushing for the inclusion of the immigration reforms in the reconciliation bill so that they could bypass a likely Republican filibuster and pass the Build Back Better Act by a simple majority vote.

Earlier this month Senate staffers met with MacDonough, who is currently on leave undergoing treatment for breast cancer, to argue for and against the inclusion of the immigration measures.

In the end, she felt the arguments against their inclusion more compelling, finding them to be “extraneous matter” and only “incidental to the non-budgetary components” of the bill.

“The proposed parole policy is not much different in its effect than the previous proposals we have considered,” she wrote, adding that the provisions represented “substantial policy changes” that “outweigh the budgetary impact.”

This the third time MacDonough, the Senate’s nonpartisan arbiter of its rules, has rejected a proposal to include immigration reform in the Build Back Better bill.

This latest setback almost certainly means the measures will be left out of the larger package if and when it finally receives a vote.

In a joint statement, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said they “strongly disagree with the Senate parliamentarian’s interpretation of their immigration proposal” and vowed “to pursue every means” to creating a path to citizenship through the Build Back Better Act.

“Throughout the entire reconciliation process, we have worked to ensure that immigration reform was not treated as an afterthought,” they said. “The majority of Americans support our efforts to provide legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States because it would raise wages, create good-paying jobs, enrich our economy, and improve the lives of all Americans.

“The American people understand that fixing our broken immigration system is a moral and economic imperative, and we stand with the millions of immigrant families across the country who deserve better and for whom we will not stop fighting,” they concluded.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also issued a statement, calling MacDonough’s decision “highly disappointing.”

“Achieving legal protections for undocumented immigrants in the Build Back Better Act has long been a key priority for Congressional Democrats and for the American people – and we will continue to look at every possible option to do so,” Pelosi said.

“Immigrants make America more American: enriching our nation, powering our economy and bringing their patriotism, bravery and determination to succeed to our shores.  The majority of the American people support Democrats’ work to fix our broken immigration system and provide legal status for undocumented immigrants,” she said.

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