Congressional Democrats said following Senate staffer and parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough’s nonbinding opinion against the inclusion of immigration provisions in the budget reconciliation bill earlier this month that they were prepared with a plan B. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said that legislators have now sent that alternative to MacDonough, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

“The new plan focuses on legalizing millions of immigrants through a ‘registry,’” the American Immigration Council said. “Current immigration law contains a provision called ‘registry’ that allows certain immigrants to ‘register’ for a green card. To qualify, individuals must have entered the U.S. by January 1, 1972. Few people qualify today.” Congress has the ability to alter that date and has done so four times, most recently following 1986 immigration reform legislation, an American Immigration Council fact sheet said.

Bloomberg reports that the plan B alternative seeks to again alter that date to a more recent one, which could open up a pathway previously unavailable to undocumented immigrants. This proposal had been suggested by some advocates. While up to 8 million undocumented immigrants could be protected under the first proposal that was presented to MacDonough, Durbin said exact figures for plan B aren’t yet clear. “I can’t tell you exactly whether the number is larger or smaller, but it would help a lot of people,” he told Bloomberg. 

“Were Congress to again advance the registry date, millions of non-citizens who are long-term residents of the United States could potentially apply for LPR status,” American Immigration Council said. “For instance, the Center for American Progress estimates that updating the registry date from 1972 to 2010 would make 6.8 million undocumented immigrants potentially eligible to apply for LPR status.”

What’s not yet clear is where MacDonough will land on plan B. What is clear is that Senate Democrats hanging the hopes of millions of families on one unelected staffer is a self-created crisis, because they can act on their own. They hold the majority, and in the manner that Republicans unified to block vital relief, Democrats need to unite to provide it. They just need to be bold enough to act on it.

“Democrats must show bravery; they can’t hide behind a procedural loss now,” The Boston Globe columnist Marcela García wrote earlier this week. “Indeed, Monday’s announcement that the Biden administration is proposing a temporary workaround to save DACA, the program benefiting hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came to the US as young children, shows evidence they can push forward. MacDonough’s nonbinding ruling must not be the end of the Democrats’ efforts to restructure our laws so that millions of immigrants can finally come out of the shadows permanently.”

While Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients like Karla and other undocumented immigrants can’t vote, they organized for Democrats because they were promised a pathway to citizenship. Ruiz was part of a recent overnight rally demanding her senators, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, act for Arizona. “We are here to remind Democrats, like Senate Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, President Biden, Vice President Harris, that they have all the power—all the power—to deliver to our communities. No excuses,” Arisaid, another DACA recipient from Arizona, said at a recent rally.

“The multiracial majority that elected Democrats is not going to understand or accept that the will of the majority and the support of Democrats in Congress was thwarted by a staff attorney’s inaccurate ruling,” America’s Voice Executive Director Frank Sharry said. “Whether through or around the Senate parliamentarian, Democrats need to deliver this year.” That was echoed by Community Change Action Co-President Lorella Praeli. She said that while she believed immigration provisions were absolutely permissible in the budget reconciliation bill (and other experts agree), Democrats ultimately have no excuses to not act.

“Democrats do not get to hide behind the parliamentarian this year,” Praeli said according to García’s column. “They have the support of the majority of the American people. They have the White House, the Senate, and the House. They will not get brownie points or participation trophies for trying.”

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            Wednesday, Sep 29, 2021 ·  6:36:03 PM +00:00

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      Gabe Ortiz
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    Well, that was quick. But as our own David Nir notes, MacDonough “issues non-binding advisory opinions that senators are free to accept or disregard as they see fit.”