by Robert Law at Center for Immigration Studies
The House of Representatives recently passed the $1.7 trillion dollar budget reconciliation bill, known as the “Build Back Better” Act. The bill passed by the slim margin of 220-213, with all House Republicans voting against it (except for one member who did not vote) and one Democrat joined in opposition.
The Center’s analysts have written extensively on the various immigration provisions contained in the bill. Steve Camarota calculated that illegal aliens will receive $10.5 billion from the Child Tax Credit since the bill drops the requirement that the child have a Social Security number. I have highlighted in a series of posts how legal immigration will significantly increase, mainly via a green card giveaway to Big Tech.
But the keystone of the immigration provisions in “Build Back Better” has been the attempt to amnesty millions of illegal aliens. Originally, Democrats sought what you might call “amnesty premium” in the form of lawful permanent resident (LPR) status and a path to U.S. citizenship. Andrew Arthur found that a number of criminal aliens would obtain green cards this way based on various waivers contained in the bill. The Senate parliamentarian blocked that provision, finding that amnesty is “a policy change that substantially outweighs the budgetary impact of that change”, and, therefore, could not be included in a reconciliation bill.
Undeterred, Democrats pivoted to a “parole” amnesty lite for all aliens who entered the United States, legally or unlawfully, before January 1, 2011. Parole is supposed to be a narrow authority under section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary to temporarily allow an alien into the country “only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit”. As Andrew Arthur previously explained, this proposal would grant these paroled aliens work authorization, Social Security numbers, and permission to travel abroad, and even exempt them from the REAL ID Act requirements for driver’s licenses. The parole would be valid for five years, renewable for another five-year period.
Because this is not amnesty premium…
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