The Senate parliamentarian told Democrats on Wednesday that their newest proposal for helping millions of illegal immigrants stay in the U.S. permanently could not be included in their $3.5 trillion spending bill.
It’s the Democratic Party’s latest setback in a string of losses in recent months.
“It’s unfortunate. I disagree with her,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., one of the party’s many advocates for illegal immigration, said of the decision by Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s nonpartisan rules arbiter.
The newly rejected language would have let illegals in the U.S. before 2010 remain permanently if they met other conditions and could have impacted 8 million people, said a person familiar with the plan who described it on condition of anonymity.
For many progressives, one of the top goals of the struggling $3.5 trillion bill has been to include a chance for permanent residence, and potentially citizenship, for millions of immigrants in the country illegally.
President Joe Biden proposed early this year seeking such a pathway for 11 million immigrants. While the House has approved legislation helping some of them, Republicans have pushed back against those bills in the Senate and bipartisan talks there over potential compromises have failed.
Because of that blockade, Democrats have tried to push their immigration provisions in the $3.5 trillion measure because it has special protections that prevent Republicans from using filibusters to kill it. Filibusters are delays that take 60 votes in the 50-50 Senate to halt.
Menendez issued a threat to the business community and said if Congress can’t help illegals remain in the U.S., he will oppose future immigration changes that help businesses.
MacDonough ruled that Democrats’ initial proposal violated Senate rules allowing language in special fiscal bills — including the $3.5 trillion package — only if its primary impact is on the federal budget, not on government policy.
The latest plan had only “minor” differences from the initial one, MacDonough wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this article