Top Dem Senator Reveals Third Attempt to Nest Amnesty for Millions of Illegals

Top Dem Senator Reveals Third Attempt to Nest Amnesty for Millions of Illegal Immigrants in Reconciliation Bill
Caroline Downey
Wed, October 20, 2021, 7:18 PM

On Wednesday Democratic senator Bob Menendez revealed the third proposal under his party’s consideration to nest amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants in the budget reconciliation bill pending in the chamber after earlier attempts failed.

Democrats have tried a few angles to incorporate an amnesty provision into the reconciliation package, the first two of which Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough rejected. She denied the first proposal to provide a pathway to citizenship for certain groups of illegal aliens, arguing that it is a “tremendous and enduring policy change that dwarfs its budgetary impact.”

MacDonough also dismissed the second plan, which involved modifying an immigration registry that outlines a process for immigrants who have resided in the U.S. since before January 1, 1972, to apply for a green card. Democrats asked to change the immigration registry date to 2010, to make a total of 6.7 million people eligible for permanent residency.

Menendez told Axios on Wednesday that the Democrats have moved on to “Plan C,” which would expand temporary legal status and work permits.

“We haven’t finalized it yet as we speak, but ‘Plan C’ would probably be a parole option that would give about 8 million of the 11 million undocumented immigrants who meet certain requirements the ability to work lawfully, to have a status that would last five years and would be renewable for another five years, that would protect them from deportation, that would allow them to travel domestically and internationally . . . that could also potentially gain access to healthcare coverage,” the senator said.

“I hope she will find her way to say yes this time, but we will not accept no as an answer at the end of the day,” he added.

Progressive Democrats are using the reconciliation process, which evades a Senate filibuster and can pass legislation with just a simple majority of 50 votes, to embed a number of their priorities into the budget plan, including amnesty, climate change, child care, health care, education, etc.

Menendez said that the reconciliation avenue is “the only pathway for some broad-based pathway toward some type of status for undocumented immigrants in the country.”

“And without reconciliation and without Republican support in an evenly divided Senate, I don’t see how that pathway would be possible,” he told Axios. “That’s why we’re putting so much effort into this.”

Record high migrant detentions at US-Mexico border
Published10 hours ago

Of all those detained, the biggest category were adults travelling without children

The US says more than 1.7 million migrants were detained along its border with Mexico in the past 12 months - the highest number ever recorded.

More than one million of them were expelled to Mexico or their native countries, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection.

Agents apprehended people from more than 160 countries.

President Joe Biden's popularity in opinion polls has been sinking, partly as a result of his immigration policy.

Just 35% of Americans said they approved of his handling of the issue, in an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey earlier this month.

Mr Biden promised a more humane immigration policy than his predecessor Donald Trump, but the US-Mexico border has been engulfed in crisis for much of the Democrat's nine-month-old presidency.

The detention numbers for the 2021 fiscal year, which ended in September, are the highest since 2000. That year, more than 1.6 million migrants were held at the US-Mexico border. But the number has not reached 1.7 million since US authorities first began tracking such entries in the 1960s.

"The large number of expulsions during the pandemic has contributed to a larger-than-usual number of migrants making multiple border crossing attempts," the US Customs and Border Protection said.

Those trying to enter the US illegally were mainly from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Of all those detained, the biggest category were adults travelling without children - more than 1.1 million (or 64%).

At the same time, the US authorities said they encountered more than 145,000 unaccompanied children - a record number.

Almost 11,000 of those children remained in government custody on Friday.

A BBC investigation of the Fort Bliss detention centre in Texas earlier this year found reports of sexual abuse, Covid and lice outbreaks, hungry children being served undercooked meat and sandstorms engulfing the desert tent camps where the young people were being held.

Republicans have blamed Mr Biden's promise to create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants for fuelling the surge.

Mr Biden - who is making one of his regular trips to his home in Delaware this weekend - has been facing questions this week about why he has not visited the border.

The White House press secretary told reporters on Friday that Mr Biden drove by the border in 2008 when he was campaigning to be Barack Obama's vice-president.