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Immigrant Parole Trumps Pathway to Citizenship in House Spending Bill

What a mess...

Quote:

“I see a lot of people who are U.S. citizens touting parole,” said an undocumented organizer in California, “and I keep on asking the question: Who was in the room who okayed this? Was this being decided about us without us? We did not ask for parole.”

“Friday got heated,” said an undocumented organizer from the Midwest of their weekly meeting with Senate leadership aides. “They asked us what they can do differently in the meeting, but afterwards some of the [We Are Home] steering committee members told us we don’t have buy-in for citizenship, which made no sense because the registry was in the [House BBB] text when the White House announced the framework.”

The Washington Post reported that registry would be a “placeholder” in the text while the Senate Parliamentarian advised on parole… And there it was: the hard-fought pathway to citizenship holding on for dear life in a complex policy negotiation over trillions of dollars in proposed government spending.

Senior policy aides in the House and Senate told Latino Rebels they assumed the citizenship pathway would survive to the floor vote in the lower chamber, until a week later when, on November 3, the House Rules Committee published an updated bill text. Citizenship was out, replaced by parole.

Hill aides, advocates, and this Latino Rebels reporter were bewildered by the news. Speaker Pelosi, Senator Durbin, the entire Hispanic caucus, and the Squad were demanding citizenship. Why was it gone from the bill text?

Quote:

Jayapal’s Folly

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chair of the House Progressive Caucus, was telling advocates as early as the first week of October that citizenship was definitely out of the bill, according to two senior House aides to Progressive Caucus members involved in immigration policy negotiations.

“We don’t know why she’s telling them that,” said a Hispanic Caucus member on background to Latino Rebels at the time. “Her caucus needs to be hearing the opposite.”

Jayapal, an immigrant from India, was invited to the White House to negotiate BBB, while Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), her caucus whip, was not.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and other Squad members expected to drive the Progressive Caucus message were never invited to closed-door meetings with President Biden, according to their aides.

On October 28, the White House announced a new framework for BBB that included a $100 billion topline for “immigration reform that is consistent with the Senate’s reconciliation rules.”

Within hours, the House Rules Committee published the first draft of a long-awaited bill text. The Post was right: Registry was in —perhaps as a placeholder, perhaps not. For six days it remained in the bill text, until it was replaced with immigrant parole in the second draft published by the Rules Committee.

“I have brought it up to the President multiple times,” Jayapal told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, “and what we have come to is that if there are senators who will not overrule the parliamentarian, then I don’t think that it’s going to be possible to put it in.”

I believe that we should vote on the things that the Parliamentarian is likely to include,” added Jayapal. “I do understand my House colleagues’ desire to not vote on something that … the Parliamentarian is going to rule out of order.”

Progressive aides in both chambers were dumbfounded by Jayapal’s interview. Even if it were true, as some aides believed, that a pathway to citizenship was dead in the water for BBB, why would the Progressive Caucus Chair make herself the messenger of the bad news? Why not make the moderate Democrats outside of her caucus take the wrap for obstructing reform?

That was Monday. By Wednesday, registry was out, immigrant parole was in. Senate aides now say passing parole in the House doesn’t make it any easier to pass a registry in the upper chamber.

BBB negotiations continue in the House, with representatives expected back on Capitol Hill on Monday, November 15.

https://www.latinorebels.com/2021/11...rolehousebill/

@PabloReports
Anyone following immigration politics since Obama knows the weakest parole and the strongest citizenship pathway will be called 'amnesty' by GOP ... which is yet another reason why parole is such a bizarre relief proposal for relief advocates to push for in the House BBB text.