华盛顿——参议院议员周日晚间表示，民主党人不能将他们支持社会和气候项目的3.5万亿美元一揽子计划用于他们让数百万移民有机会成为公民的计划，这对该党多年来实现这一长期追求的目标的最清晰道路是一个毁灭性的打击。
参议院无党派人士伊丽莎白·麦克多诺对其神秘规则的解释对总统来说是一个破坏性的、令人沮丧的挫折乔·拜登，国会民主党人和他们在支持移民和进步社区的盟友。尽管他们说他们会给她提供新的选择，但麦克多诺的立场严重损害了他们在共和党反对下单方面实施改革的希望，这些改革让几类移民获得永久居留权，甚至可能获得公民身份。
议员的意见至关重要，因为这意味着移居条款不能包含在一个巨大的3.5万亿美元的措施中，这个措施被共和党阻挠者屏蔽了。由于容易受到那些需要60张参议院选票才能化解的扼杀法案的拖延，移民语言在50-50的参议院中几乎没有机会。
在美联社获得的一份给参议员的三页备忘录中，麦克唐纳指出，根据参议院的规定，如果这些法案的预算效果“仅仅是其整体政策影响的附带结果”，则不允许在这些法案中包含条款。
曾做过移民律师的麦克多诺引用民主党人将会给移民生活带来的巨大变化，称这种语言“从任何标准来看都是一种广泛的新移民政策。”
被否决的条款将为年轻移民打开合法永久居留的多年大门——或许还有公民权，这些年轻移民在孩童时期被非法带入美国，通常被称为“梦想家”还包括逃离遭受自然灾害或极端暴力的国家的具有临时受保护身份的移民;基本工人和农场工人。
麦克唐纳说，由于许多人可能属于不止一个类别，估计会有所不同，但无党派的国会预算办公室表示，民主党的努力将帮助800万人。拜登最初提出了一项影响1100万移民的更广泛的计划。
民主党人及其支持移民的盟友表示，他们将提供替代麦克多诺的方法，这将为至少一些移民打开永久身份的大门。
纽约州参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默在一份书面声明中说:“我们对这一决定深感失望，但在预算和解中为移民提供合法地位的斗争仍在继续。“参议院民主党人已经准备了替代提案，并将在未来几天与参议院议员举行额外会议。”
“获得永久居留权和公民身份的途径具有重大的预算影响、巨大的两党支持，最重要的是，它对美国的复苏至关重要，”移民中心副主任凯里·塔尔博特(Kerri Talbot)说，移民中心是一个支持移民的策略师团体。她说，将继续努力“确保数百万无证移民能够得到持久的保护。”
这位议员的裁决激怒了进步人士，而此时民主党领导人实际上需要国会中他们政党的每一票才能批准一项体现拜登国内最高目标的10年3.5万亿美元的法案。
与此同时，共和党人已经发出信号，他们将利用移民，将其与一些选民对犯罪的恐惧联系起来，作为明年控制众议院和参议院竞选的首要问题。当大量移民试图穿越西南边境时，这个问题在一年内引起了关注。
参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell，R-Ky)说:“民主党领导人拒绝抵制他们的进步基础，并支持法治，尽管我们的边境从未如此安全。他说，将这些条款纳入阻挠议事的预算措施是“不恰当的，我很高兴它失败了。”
事实上，两党多年来一直在扩大特别预算保护的使用。民主党人利用它们制定了巴拉克·奥巴马总统2010年的医疗保健法，共和党人在2017年废除该法规的失败行动中利用了它们。
参议院预算委员会的最高共和党人、南卡罗来纳州参议员林赛·格雷厄姆(Lindsey Graham)表示:“这将导致边境上的竞选活动增加——超出我们今天已经有的混乱局面。
另一个支持者表示，他们正在探索的方法是更新一个“登记”日期，允许美国的一些移民在此之前成为永久居民，如果他们满足某些条件的话。但不清楚他们是否会选择这一方案，也不清楚议员会如何裁决。
白宫发言人韦丹特·帕特尔称这位议员的决定令人失望，但表示参议员将提出新的移民想法。
麦克唐纳引用了CBO的一项估计，即民主党的提议将在未来十年增加1400亿美元的联邦赤字。这主要是因为移民有资格享受联邦福利。
但麦克多诺写道，这种财政影响被民主党的努力给移民生活带来的改善所掩盖。
她说:“许多无证人员出于对被驱逐出境的恐惧，在我们社会的阴影下生活和工作。永久的法律地位将赋予他们“工作自由、旅行自由、在美国任何一个州的社会中公开生活的自由，以及与家人团聚的自由，这将使他们有资格及时申请公民身份——这是联邦财政无法比拟的。”
她写道，“这是巨大而持久的政策变化，使其预算影响相形见绌。”
在过去的20年里，民主党和少数共和党盟友在帮助数百万移民获得美国永久合法身份的立法方面取得了一些进展。最终，他们每次都受到共和党广泛反对的阻挠。
众议院今年批准了单独的法案，实现了大部分目标，但由于共和党的阻挠，这些措施在参议院毫无进展。
总额为3.5万亿美元的法案将增加社会安全网、环境和其他项目的支出，并在很大程度上通过对富人和企业增税来资助这些举措。
进步的和温和的民主党人正在为该措施的价格标签和细节争论不休。该党领导人在50-50的参议院中不能失去任何民主党选票，在众议院中最多只能失去三张选票。
麦克唐纳是在2012年被任命的，当时民主党控制了众议院，他被认为是参议院规则的公正仲裁者。
今年早些时候，她的一项裁决迫使民主党从新冠肺炎救济法案中取消了最低工资的增加，扼杀了另一项进步的首要任务。
Senate parliamentarian deals blow to Dems' immigration push
WASHINGTON -- Democrats can’t use their $3.5 trillion package bolstering social and climate programs for their plan to give millions of immigrants a chance to become citizens, the Senate’s parliamentarian said late Sunday, a crushing blow to what was the party’s clearest pathway in years to attaining that long-sought goal.
The decision by Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate’s nonpartisan interpreter of its often enigmatic rules, is a damaging and disheartening setback for PresidentJoe Biden, congressional Democrats and their allies in the pro-immigration and progressive communities. Though they said they'd offer her fresh alternatives, MacDonough's stance badly wounds their hopes of unilaterally enacting — over Republican opposition — changes letting several categories of immigrants gain permanent residence and possibly citizenship.
The parliamentarian opinion is crucial because it means theimmigrationprovisions could not be included in an immense $3.5 trillion measure that’s been shielded from GOP filibusters. Left vulnerable to those bill-killing delays, which require 60 Senate votes to defuse, the immigration language has virtually no chance in the 50-50 Senate.
In a three-page memo to senators obtained by The Associated Press, MacDonough noted that under Senate rules, provisions are not allowed in such bills if their budget effect is “merely incidental” to their overall policy impact.
Citing sweeping changes that Democrats would make in immigrants' lives, MacDonough, a one-time immigration attorney, said the language “is by any standard a broad, new immigration policy.”
The rejected provisions would open multiyear doorways to legal permanent residence — and perhaps citizenship — for young immigrants brought illegally to the country as children, often called “Dreamers." Also included would be immigrants with Temporary Protected Status who’ve fled countries stricken by natural disasters or extreme violence; essential workers and farm workers.
Estimates vary because many people can be in more than one category, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says 8 million people would be helped by the Democratic effort, MacDonough said. Biden had originally proposed a broader drive that would have affected 11 million immigrants.
Democrats and their pro-immigration allies have said they will offer alternative approaches to MacDonough that would open a doorway to permanent status to at least some immigrants.
“We are deeply disappointed in this decision but the fight to provide lawful status for immigrants in budget reconciliation continues," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a written statement. “Senate Democrats have prepared alternate proposals and will be holding additional meetings with the Senate parliamentarian in the coming days.”
“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,” said Kerri Talbot, deputy director of the Immigration Hub, a group of pro-immigration strategists. She said work would continue "to ensure that millions of undocumented immigrants can have lasting protections.”
The parliamentarian’s ruling was riling progressives at a time when Democratic leaders will need virtually every vote in Congress from their party to approve a 10-year, $3.5 trillion bill that embodies Biden’s top domestic goals.
It also comes with Republicans already signaling that they will use immigration, linking it to some voters’ fears of crime, as a top issue in next year’s campaigns for control of the House and Senate. The issue has gained attention in a year when huge numbers of immigrants have been encountered trying to cross the Southwest border.
“Democratic leaders refused to resist their progressive base and stand up for the rule of law, even though our border has never been less secure," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He said putting the provisions into filibuster-protected budget measure was "inappropriate and I'm glad it failed."
In fact, both parties have stretched the use of the special budget protections over the years. Democrats used them to enact President Barack Obama's 2010 health care law, and Republicans used them during their failed 2017 drive to repeal that statute.
“It would have led to an increased run on the border — beyond the chaos we already have there today,” said the Senate Budget Committee's top Republican, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
One alternative advocates have said they're exploring would be to update a “registry” date that allows some immigrants in the U.S. by that time to become permanent residents if they meet certain conditions. But it was unclear if they would pursue that option or how the parliamentarian would rule.
White House spokesperson Vedant Patel called the parliamentarian’s decision disappointing but said senators would offer new immigration ideas.
MacDonough cited a CBO estimate that Democrats' proposals would increase federal deficits by $140 billion over the coming decade. That is largely because of federal benefits the immigrants would qualify for.
But that fiscal impact, wrote MacDonough, was overshadowed by improvements the Democratic effort would make for immigrants' lives.
“Many undocumented persons live and work in the shadows of our society out of fear of deportation,” she said. Permanent legal status would grant them “freedom to work, freedom to travel, freedom to live openly in our society in any state in the nation, and to reunite with their families and it would make them eligible, in time, to apply for citizenship — things for which there is no federal fiscal equivalent."
That, she wrote, “is tremendous and enduring policy change that dwarfs its budgetary impact.”
Democrats and a handful of GOP allies have made halting progress during the past two decades toward legislation that would help millions of immigrants gain permanent legal status in the U.S. Ultimately, they’ve been thwarted each time by broad Republican opposition.
The House has approved separate bills this year achieving much of that, but the measures have gone nowhere in the Senate because of Republican filibusters.
The overall $3.5 trillion bill would boost spending for social safety net, environment and other programs and largely finance the initiatives with tax increases on the rich and corporations.
Progressive and moderate Democrats are battling over the measure's price tag and details. Party leaders can't lose any Democratic votes in the 50-50 Senate and can lose no more than three in the House.
MacDonough was appointed in 2012 when Democrats controlled the chamber and is respected as an even-handed arbiter of Senate rules.
Earlier this year, one of her rulings forced Democrats to remove a minimum wage increase from a COVID-19 relief bill, killing another top progressive priority.
