National Immigrant Justice Center Director of Policy Heidi Altman issued the following statement in response to the Senate parliamentarian’s recommendation to exclude a pathway to citizenship from the budget reconciliation bill:
“Undocumented immigrant leaders have marched and advocated for access to citizenship for years, and the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling will not stop forward progress. It is disappointing that an unelected staff attorney has such tremendous authority over whether millions of U.S. families and communities should have an opportunity to pursue citizenship, and the stability and family unity citizenship would provide. It is even more disappointing that the parliamentarian did not see the tremendous economic benefits a citizenship bill would bring to our whole country. But we expect Senate Democratic leadership to follow through on their commitments to nonetheless find a solution. Immigrants who have built lives here with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or Temporary Protected Status, the farm workers and essential workers who have carried our country through the pandemic, and the majority of Americans who support citizenship and want our communities to remain whole, deserve nothing less.”