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The U.S. Senate parliamentarian ruled late Sunday that Democrats’ efforts to include a path to legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants in their budget reconciliation bill is “not appropriate,” jeopardizing Democrats’ plan to use the bill to help undocumented immigrants get legal residency. The parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, is a nonpartisan arbiter of the Senate’s rules and rejected the Democrats’ plan after meeting with Democratic and Republican lawmakers. The plan could have created a path to legal status for as many as 8 million of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. MacDonough wrote that giving citizenship to millions of immigrants would be a “tremendous and enduring policy change that dwarfs its budgetary impact.” The Washington Post
In other federal immigration news…
Biden Order Allows Sanctions On Ethiopian and Eritrean Governments
President Biden signed an executive order Friday allowing sanctions against Ethiopian and Eritrean government officials involved in lengthening the conflict in northern Ethiopia. The executive order allows the Department of Treasury to sanction individuals involved in the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments, as well as people in the Tigray People’s Liberation’s Front, a statement from the White House said. The fighting in Ethiopia began in November of 2020, after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military incursion into the Tigray province. It has led to a drastic humanitarian crisis with nearly 5 million people in need of assistance and almost 1 million now facing famine. Bloomberg
White House Promoted Economic Benefits of Legalizing Migrants
The White House Council of Economic Advisors said Friday that giving green cards to millions of undocumented immigrants would likely raise tax revenues, enhance productivity and have other benefits for the children of immigrants — all which would generate “substantial economic value for the country,” they said. Legalizing immigrants could raise the cost of social benefit programs, but taxes immigrants would pay could cover those costs, in addition to the “positive fiscal contributions” of the next generation, they said. Axios
