Progressives' Efforts at Immigration Reform Halted as Joe Manchin Withholds Support

Just a day after a progressive House Democrats rally encouraging the senators to defy the Senate parliamentarian and include immigration reform measures into the Build Back Better act, Joe Manchin of West Virginia has come out saying he would support no such measure.

The moderate Democrat told reporters on Thursday that he would vote to uphold parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough's decision if she ruled that any of the provisions within the Biden bill were deemed ineligible to be passed through the budget reconciliation process.

"The bottom line is the parliamentarian, you stick with the parliamentarian, that's all," Manchin said. "You stick on every issue. You can't pick and choose."

Democrats are allowed to ignore MacDonough's ruling, but if that were to happen, Republicans could force a vote challenging such an action. In the 50-50 Senate, Manchin's vote would be critical to include the reform measures in the vote.

For months, the bill has revolved around the moderate senators demands, and both Manchin and Senator Krysten Sinema of Arizona have been successful in peeling back an original $3.5 trillion version of the current $2 trillion bill that awaits a Senate vote.

During the progressive rally held on Tuesday, Representatives Chuy García of Illinois, New York's Adriano Espaillat and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others placed pressure on lawmakers in Congress' upper chamber to advance an issue that they said has been facing the country for 35 years.

"We will no longer accept being a country that will take people's labor and accepts people's labor but doesn't accept our humanity and dignity," Ocasio-Cortez said. "We will not surrender our power to an unelected parliamentarian. We need to use our power to help the people. And so, our demand is for the Senate to override the parliamentarian to include a full path to citizenship."

The trio stressed that during the pandemic, undocumented people supported the country's economy by continuing to report to work in critical sectors such as food services, public sanitation and elder care. They said that now is the moment for the nation to see reform.

Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic party's vote counter in the upper chamber, voiced his support for going against the recommendation of the parliamentarian to pass immigration reform, the Associated Press reported. Should this issue come to vote, he expects it to be "close."