Lisa Desjardins:
First, a fast reminder that Democrats have 50 votes within the Senate, a Senate which often requires 60 votes to get previous a filibuster, which might block nearly any piece of laws to do this.
To get previous that, they’re making an attempt to make use of a finances reconciliation course of to cross many items of the Biden bind agenda. And one among them is what you simply talked about, immigration reform.
However it turned — final night time, we’ve got realized that their plan is just not going to cross muster for this budgetary course of. Let’s remind individuals precisely what that plan was, rapidly. To begin with, Democrats have been proposing parole. That might be a standing that might not result in a path to citizenship, however would give a legalized standing to some six or seven million individuals on this nation proper now who’re undocumented.
And, final night time, we did play the voices from interviews that our producer Saher Khan has performed with some DACA recipients and TPS, momentary protected standing, recipients. These voices are vital. They usually have been listening to the phrases particularly of the Senate parliamentarian.
It’s the Senate parliamentarian who determined whether or not or not these proposals have been going to suit this budgetary reconciliation muster. Have they got sufficient of a budgetary impact?
Here is what Elizabeth MacDonough, the parliamentarian wrote, based on e-mail offered to me by some sources.
She stated: “These are substantial coverage modifications with lasting results, similar to these we beforehand thought-about from Democrats. And people results outweigh the budgetary impression.”
Basically, they’re saying that is extra of a coverage change. It is not a budgetary change. As you possibly can think about, Democrats very distressed about this, upset, together with some members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Three of these members wrote this immediately in response, saying that Democrats need to do all the things they will to get to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, even when meaning disregarding the Senate parliamentarian. In order that results in this query.
Can Democrats overrule the parliamentarian yesterday? Sure, Judy, they will. However, politically, there’s not the sense that they might do this. There’s not 50 votes to do this. So this led us to speak to these undocumented — these DACA recipients and others immediately for his or her response to this information.
And I need to go to a a type of of us that we talked to, Daishi Tanaka, who informed us what his response was immediately.