King Won't Say Whether He'll Back Immigration Reform In Senate Budget Package

By Dan Neumann, Maine Beacon:

Maine independent Sen. Angus King made no statement in protest to the news this week that an unelected Senate official rejected Democrats’ bid to include immigration reform in their $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” budget reconciliation bill.

The decision by Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough — an interpreter of Senate rules with no constitutional authority who serves at the pleasure of the Senate President, Vice President Kamala Harris — could undermine President Joe Biden and Democrats’ best chance to pass major immigration reform while they control the White House and both houses of Congress.

The House budget proposal includes a provision that would provide a pathway to citizenship for eight million immigrants including DACA Recipients (“DREAMers”), Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Holders and undocumented essential workers, including farmworkers.

The Senate parliamentarian ruling is not binding. However, neither King, Biden nor Democratic Senate leadership voiced support for overruling the parliamentarian’s decision.

King has backed immigration reform proposals in the past, touting his support for a bipartisan comprehensive immigration bill that passed the Senate in 2013 but didn’t receive a floor vote in the GOP-controlled House. In 2018, he co-sponsored bipartisan immigration legislation which the Trump administration opposed.

King’s staff did not respond to a request for comment on the parliamentarian’s decision.

Democrats, holding a slim one-vote majority in the Senate, had sought to pass legislation that would provide a pathway to permanent residence and citizenship for millions of immigrants as part of their sweeping $3.5 trillion social spending package, which also includes major investments in climate change, child and senior care. The package is moving through the Senate’s budget reconciliation process. The process is the only way to circumvent Republican obstruction and avoid the required 60 votes to break a filibuster.

MacDonough, however, determined on Sept. 19 that the immigration provisions did not qualify to be passed under the Senate’s reconciliation rules.

Activists rally in DC for citizenship

Democrats and King, who caucuses with the Democratic Party, have been under pressure from immigrant and progressive groups in Maine and around the country to enact a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers, TPS holders and essential workers.

Advocates said they were dismayed that Democrats’ pledges to stand with immigrants were derailed by a single Senate staffer.

Cara Stadler, chef and co-owner of Bao Bao Dumpling House in Portland and Tao Yuan in Brunswick, said despite the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling, providing a path to citizenship is still the right thing for Congress to do.

“Immigrants are Mainers — they’re members of our communities, essential workers, and fellow small business owners,” Stadler said.

“Undocumented essential workers and farmworkers have been there for us by serving on the frontlines of the pandemic in important industries like food production and food service,” she added. “They’re tried and true members of our workforce, and we shouldn’t turn our backs on them now — Congress should pass this long-overdue path to citizenship.”

In D.C. this week, thousands of activists rallied in favor of robust citizenship, care and climate policies.

“I’m tired of anti-immigrant politicians using our lives as political motivation to mobilize their base. Congress must ensure immigration provisions stay in the budget,” Marco Alvarez, a rural organizer from Minnesota and a Dreamer, said on a stage in front of the Capitol on Tuesday.

The apparent Senate impasse came as the Biden administration also began the mass expulsion without due process of over 14,000 Haitian asylum seekers encamped at a border crossing in Del Rio, Texas. Many of the Haitians are escaping political unrest and natural disasters. In response, advocates blasted the administration for launching what could be one of the largest mass deportations of asylum seekers in decades.

‘A once in a lifetime opportunity’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) expressed disappointment in the parliamentarian’s decision this week, vowing to keep pushing immigration reform in the budget plan and explore alternative proposals.

“It saddened me. It frustrated me. It angered me because so many lives are at stake,” Schumer said. “We’re going to continue our fight.”

But House progressives and advocates say Senate leadership has power to overrule the decision.

“This ruling by the parliamentarian, is only a recommendation. Senator Schumer and the White House can and should ignore it,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota and refugee. “We can’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to do the right thing.”

In 2001, Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott fired the parliamentarian at the time in order to pass former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts through reconciliation.

“What would the GOP do?” Democratic New York Rep. Mondaire Jones asked. “’There were these extremely popular things that Americans elected us to deliver but the parliamentarian advised us not to.’”

If the Senate declines to proceed with immigration reform, it would mark the second major campaign pledge made by Biden that could be killed by an unelected Senate staffer.

In February, MacDonough ruled that a $15-an-hour minimum wage proposal could not be passed through the reconciliation process as part of Biden’s COVID relief package, the American Rescue Plan Act.

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