The “reconciliation” budget maneuver may deliver amnesty and many big-government programs to eager Democrats — but only if Democratic leaders can accomplish the legislative equivalent of a waiter who carries a tower of plates, meals, and drinks to cheering diners.
So far, Democrat diners have ordered amnesties for 8 million people, plus many expansions of welfare, aid, education, and housing programs.
“Democrats are drafting a fiscal blueprint that will kick-start the process by instructing the Senate Judiciary Committee to craft a targeted immigration overhaul bill with a $120 billion federal budgetary impact,” Bloomberg.com reported July 25, adding:
Of the 8 million immigrants that Democrats want to aid in the economic package, 3 million would be young undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers,” migrant workers and some with “temporary protected status” because dangerous conditions present risks if they return to their home countries, the aide said. The other 5 million would be “essential workers” who have yet to be defined.
The Democrats also ordered a list of migration expansions, such as “making improvements on U.S. ports of entry, clearing out a backlog of visa applications, or other changes,” the report said.
These side-orders could be dramatic. For example, Democrats may allow agriculture companies to import more cheap H-2A visa workers with dangled promises of quick citizenship. That would force Americans’ wages down and push many Americans out of agriculture jobs.
Also, any amnesty would make it impossible for the federal government to deport the next wave of illegal migrants because the migrants would claim in court that they were in the United States before the amnesty was established. The result could be a runaway worldwide migration into the United States — and increasingly bitter political divides.
But the Democrats can pass a bill through the Senate, using their 50 votes — including the two Georgia seats won on January 5 — plus the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.
GOP leaders know that Democrats can pass the legislation if they can balance their myriad rival priorities.
The push “almost surely will not work,” predicted Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) during a July 21 hearing at the judiciary committee. “Members of the committee know full well that immigration law is not written through our arcane budget procedures,” he complained.
GOP leaders can complicate the process by simultaneously pressuring Democratic politicians, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), to zig-zag away from the political risks in the nation-changing legislation. The process would also require the GOP Senators to help Democrats with face-saving excuses that shield them from their party’s fervent open-borders wing.
In Manchin’s case, he has declared support for a “Gang of Eight” amnesty that would further impoverish his state, but he is also protesting the legislation’s curbs on oil and gas sectors in his poor state.
The same pressures affect Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to include an amnesty,” he told reporters. “It just depends on what it looks like.”
One quirk for the Democrats is that they need the support of the Senate’s parliamentarian to get their amnesty measure through the Senate. But Democrat budget chief Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) suggested that the official could be replaced if she objects to the inclusion of amnesty measures in the spending bill.
That is also a risky maneuver because the firing would give some Democrat Senators an easy excuse to stall the bill.
Other complications include the rising inflow of migrants across the southern border and the internal White House split between President Joe Biden’s East Coast network and the West Coast network led by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Kamala’s network includes many of the West Coast tech investors, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and is bankrolling much of the pro-amnesty campaign. Biden’s deputies tend to focus on more traditional Democrat priorities, such as government spending.
So far, Biden has supported an amnesty reconciliation, saying June 25 that “There needs [to be] a pathway for citizenship, whether it can be in [reconciliation bill] remains to be seen.”
Up to now, the Republicans have maintained a solid opposition to the mass amnesty, despite rumors of a switch by GOP Senators, including Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID). But GOP solidarity is not enough because the Democrats have the votes to pass the giveaway without any GOP support.
Some GOP leaders are looking for ways to pressure the Democrats’ intricate bill. For example, if the reconciliation bill gets to the Senate floor, GOP Senators can force Democrats to vote yes or no on a wide series of immigration measures that would either undermine the amnesty or damage their election-day support.
But Democrats are hoping that the colossal size of the $3.5 trillion bill — and the numerous expansions of government aid — will keep their caucus in line. Bloomberg reported:
The broad economic package, which needs 50 votes to pass the Senate and is unlikely to attract any GOP support, will seek to shift policy in areas that also include climate change, the tax code, Medicare, child and elder care and others.
Moreover, Democrats have the aid of establishment reporters, few of whom recognize the massive economic damage of labor migration, even when the migrants are crossing the southern border in the hundreds.
The Democrats’ push for the amnesty is being bankrolled and steered by West Coast investors, led by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He and his fellow investors want to import more migrants — even very poor migrants — because they spike consumer sales, boost rental rates, cut wages, and so raise profits and stock values. They also serve as clients for welfare agencies, and, eventually, as voters for Democrat activists.
But migration damages ordinary Americans’ career opportunities, cuts their wages, raises their rents, curbs their productivity, shrinks their political clout, and fractures their open-minded, equality-promoting civic culture.
In general, legal and illegal migration moves wealth from employees to employers, from families to investors, from young to old, from children to their parents, from homebuyers to investors, from technology to stoop labor. It also helps move wealth — and social status — from heartland red states to the coastal blue states.
Unsurprisingly, a lopsided majority of Americans oppose labor migration.
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