Lisa Desjardins:
OK, so let’s talk about the proposals on the table for House Democrats.
This is an issue that many Democrats are wrestling with right now and to deem if they want to get on this bill or not. Here’s where we stand. There is option one. This is an option having to do with the registry of immigrants in this country, and it would allow, essentially, for green cards and a path to citizenship for those who arrived in this country after 2010 or — that — who have been here — I’m sorry — who arrived before 2010.
Let me make sure I get this straight. It’s confusing. Moderates, however, are concerned, because that’s a large population. That would be millions of undocumented people in this country now, anyone who got here before 2010, essentially.
The option two, though, that moderates like better is a status, not a green card, not path to citizenship. That’s something that’s called parole. It’d be five to 10 years of technical immigration parole. It would be extended to five years if people abide by the conditions.
But progressives, of course, don’t like that. So how do you square that circle? Those are the two issues, the two ideas on the table now. Progressives say something is better than nothing. All of them concerned, Judy, because it’s not clear either of these ideas can pass Senate muster, where the Senate parliamentarian, as our viewers know, has to say that anything in this bill is budgetary.
