Skip to content

 

Parliamentarian Decision Is A Callous And Potentially Disastrous Setback, Congress Must Act Immediately to Find Alternative Paths to Legalization

In response to yesterday’s decision by the Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough stating that the reconciliation package cannot include adjustment of status for certain undocumented immigrants as marked up in the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee last week, Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, released the following statement: 

 

“Yesterday’s decision by the Parliamentarian, an unelected official who advises Congress, is a callous and potentially disastrous one not only for Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, farm workers and essential workers, but for our entire nation and its future. By failing to recognize our family, community members, and loved ones and how they are inextricably linked to any plan to build back better the United States, Congress risks a historical and tragic inaction. 

 

What we need now is bold and visionary Congressional leadership so that no opportunity is left unpursued. Senate Democrats must work to ensure that updating the registry or other means of enabling undocumented immigrants to become permanent residents, is included in the Build Back Better reconciliation package.”