Leftist congressional members of “the Squad” are demanding that Democrat leaders ignore the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling that stripped amnesty and other imigration reforms from the party’s proposed $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill.
The decision by Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate’s nonpartisan interpreter, is a setback for President Joe Biden and the congressional Democrats who hoped to unilaterally make millions of illegal immigrants citizens.
However, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., claimed the ruling is “only a recommendation,” and that Democrats should move ahead with their amnesty plan anyway.
This ruling by the parliamentarian, is only a recommendation. @SenSchumer and the @WhiteHouse can and should ignore it.
We can’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to do the right thing. https://t.co/r1T7T7uQIP
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) September 20, 2021
Omar’s fellow Democrat “Squad” members Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Mondaire Jones (NY) echoed her demand.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also slammed MacDonough’s decision, vowing to continue meeting with her about “alternate” immigration reforms to include in the bill.
MacDonough argued that Democrats’ amnesty provision was “a policy change that substantially outweighs the budgetary impact of that change,” since it would make more than 8 million illegal immigrants citizens overnight.
She also pointed out it would raise the deficit by an estimated $140 billion over the next 10 years.
“[P]ermitting this provision in reconciliation would set a precedent that could be used to argue that rescinding any immigration status from anyone — not just those who obtain LPR status by virtue of this provision — would be permissible because the policy of stripping status from any immigrant does not vastly outweigh whatever budgetary impact there might be,” MacDonough said.
This is not the first time MacDonough has frustrated Democrats’ plans.
In February, she ruled Democrats could not include a $15 federal minimum wage in its enormous coronavirus relief package, drawing complaints from leftists, including Omar, who urged Biden to “refute” the ruling and pass the wage hike anyway.
