Immigration Reform in the Budget Reconciliation Bill: A Moment For Advocacy

By: Michael Gallego | Intern

On July 16, district court Judge Andrew Hanen declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, DACA, to be unlawful as he concluded that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act. 

While the Texas Judge’s decision does not affect the more than 600,000 DREAMers who currently receive protection under DACA, his ruling does bar the Department of Homeland Security from approving new DACA applications. Resultantly, the lives of DACA hopefuls now hang in the balance until his decision is reviewed by the Supreme Court, or more importantly, until Congress legislates on the question. 

Hanen’s decision, while not unexpected, ostensibly provides the crucial impetus for Congress to act substantively on immigration. The fact of the matter is that DACA has always been a temporary solution to actually furnishing a formal pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. 

Moreover, the DACA program excludes millions of undocumented people who deserve a lasting solution to keep their families and communities together. In fact, there are 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. without a viable roadmap to permanent residency and citizenship, including agricultural workers, Temporary Protected Status holders, and essential workers. They provide emotional and financial support to loved ones; shoulder responsibilities in schools, churches, local businesses, and civic organizations; and are deeply integrated into our neighborhoods. 

Now is the time for Congress to act, and there is plenty of reason to be hopeful that this time things are different. 

Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash

The American Dream and Promise Act of 2021 (H.R. 6) represents perhaps the most straightforward route to allowing DREAMers, TPS holders, and individuals with Deferred Enforced Departure to obtain protection from deportation and the opportunity to attain permanent legal status. 

In effect, H.R. 6 greatly improves how the DACA program currently functions and offers a pathway to permanent residential status for many more. The bill passed the House of Representative on March 18th, by a margin of 31 yea votes, mostly along party lines.

While H.R. 6 achieves many of the goals immigration advocacy groups have long been championing, its prospects to pass the Senate and reach President Biden’s desk for a signature are slim to none. The tenuous Democratic majority in the Senate implies that almost all legislation passed through the House along party lines will fail to overcome the 60 votes required to negate the filibuster. 

This means H.R. 6 is dead in the water unless Democrats and Republicans compromise—likely leading to a greatly scaled back version of the bill that fails to meet the needs of undocumented immigrants who are desperate for permanent residential status. Keep in mind that many of these people either know no life besides America or face persecution and unsafe conditions if they return to their home countries. 

With that being said, a strong option remains that could deliver a pathway to citizenship for millions: budget reconciliation. On August 10th, the Senate moved to begin the process of shaping the budget for the 2022 fiscal year at a price tag of $3.5 trillion. The ambitious plan not only includes funding to tackle climate change, provide universal pre-school, and construct affordable housing but also includes line items to provide permanent residence for undocumented immigrants in a similar vein as H.R. 6. 

As budget reconciliation is a filibuster-proof process, the Democrats only need to keep their majority unified to pass it. Quite simply, this is the best chance for immigration reform in decades. 

Even still, significant hurdles await the passage of a budget that includes language pertinent to immigration. Namely, the Senate parliamentarian needs to decide whether or not immigration reform has budgetary implications. If items in the budget are considered extraneous to it, they can be deemed as violating the Byrd rule. If the case can be made this time around that immigration reform does not affect the budget, the reconciliation bill could pass with a pathway to citizenship for millions. 

In 2005, a Republican-led Senate was able to pass a reconciliation bill that included provisions for immigrant visas. In this way, a precedent exists for immigration reform language making its way into budget reconciliation bills, providing further ammunition for the Democrats to argue their case. 

Just yesterday the Senate passed a $3.5 trillion budget resolution which includes a pathway to citizenship. The much-needed program would provide over $100 billion in aid to millions of Dreamers, people with Temporary Protected Status, farm workers, and other essential workers as they attain their goal of becoming American citizens. The resolution, which also would increase funding for health care, childcare and combating climate change, now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration on August 23rd. Tennessee JFON is thrilled about this news and calls for its quick passage in the House.

“Vote-a-Rama,” a Senate process that gives Senators the ability to introduce an unlimited number of amendments to the budget resolution took place just this week as well. This process gave Republicans the opportunity to force votes on anti-immigrant amendments. Some of them included establishing strict criminal bars for those who would qualify for citizenship and capping spending for humanitarian needs at the border — and many Democrats voted in favor of these anti-immigrant amendments.

Now it is our job to keep the Democrats unified and accountable. Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the two most moderate members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, have both expressed misgivings over the price. We need their support. 

For that reason, the ongoing negotiations over the bill present a profound moment for advocacy. Forget having to convince ten Senators that we need to pass immigration reform, this time we may only have to convince two.

A targeted advocacy campaign at Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema could allow the moment we have been, for years, calling for. The potential for a successful advocacy campaign now rests in the hands of everyday citizens like you and me. 

The time is now to call, write, or schedule a meeting with Sinema and Manchin. An opportunity like this may take years to come again, and millions are counting on us. 

To contact Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s Office: 

317 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510
Phone: 202-224-4521

To contact Senator Joe Manchin’s Office: 

306 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510
Phone: 202-224-3954