This Issue: Schumer/Manchin agreement on Build Back Better lacks the mass amnesty that was included last year

When it was announced earlier this week that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) had struck a deal on the Democrat's Build Back Better (BBB) package, a key issue missing from the agreement was the amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

Democrats had hoped to slip a huge amnesty into Build Back Better, Pres. Joe Biden's signature domestic policy package. The House of Representatives approved its version of BBB last fall, including an amnesty for approximately 8 million illegal aliens.

But without support from Senate Republicans, Democrats are using the budget resolution process to pass the legislation. The process allows them to pass a bill in the Senate without the 60 votes needed to pass most legislation. The caveat, however, is that provisions within the legislation must pertain to the federal budget.

Democrats have been unable to convince the Senate Parliamentarian (who interprets Senate rules) that an amnesty for millions of illegal aliens is a budgetary issue worthy of being included in the reconciliation process. Still, dozens of Democrats have called on the Party as a whole to ignore the Parliamentarian's ruling and include the amnesty anyway.

While enough Democrats, including Sen. Manchin have said publicly that they were unwilling to ignore the Parliamentarian's ruling, there was still a threat that Party leaders would eventually be able to convince them to support the move.

Earlier this year, both Sens. Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) refused to support a larger BBB package that would cost trillions of dollars. Instead, Manchin has been negotiating a much smaller package with Schumer. They finally reached an agreement this week on a package that focuses mostly on healthcare and environmental issues and doesn't include any immigration provisions.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) confirmed to NBC News that an amnesty for illegal aliens was not part of the Schumer/Manchin agreement.

Still, this doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet. Until the Senate turns the Schumer/Manchin agreement into legislation, and it passes through both chambers of Congress, we can't be certain that BBB won't include some sort of an amnesty. But the prognosis looks very good.

Should amnesty be left out of BBB, it also makes it more likely that Democratic Leaders will attempt to bring amnesty legislation to the floor during the lame duck session after the midterm elections when Members of Congress are less concerned about the electoral impacts.

Chris Chmielenski NumbersUSA Deputy Director