Thread by @PabloReports

Friends: I asked a half-dozen relevant Senators and at least a dozen relevant staffers today for an update in the promised citizenship pathways.

Breaks my heart to tweet this but it ain't looking good, as of now. 🧵

As it stands, the votes aren't there for BBB, which is now very much shelved.

Outside of reconciliation's simple majority, GOP Senators I've asked agree: there'll be no support for relief, let along the 10 votes needed.

Undocupals are doubly effed, per the staffers I've spoken with, who described the #WeAreHome coalition repping undocupals in Congress as "toxic" and "embarrassing" and so on.

Doubly because not only have their advocates lost all credibility in this & future Congresses after the 'Plan C' fiasco, but also because they will likely suffer most under the organized, refocused efforts of hardened xenophobes when the GOP retakes power in Washington.

That is to say nativists of the last admin have learned from their mistakes and are gearing up to inherit an enforcement machinery that hasn't lost an iota of capacity or a dollar or approps under Democratic rule.

Perhaps undocumented rights crowd, too, will learn from this Congress, but I'm not hopeful. The resolving door is real in the Beltway. The same failed policy hucksters during Obama run the relief table now & will remain there. That's my take.

I saddens me beyond words that undocupals have been so poorly represented in this Congress. Wish they could rep themselves instead of having to rely on the efforts of folks with no skin in the game, including me and my reporting.

Green card backlog may have a better shot at something bipartisan given the inroads they've been able to quietly make with GOP Senate offices.

More reporting to follow on backlog relief after interviewing more Senators in the minority to see where they stand on 60001-5 and other policies that have been floated in past Congresses.

Diligence will be done on this by me.

For backloggers, being excluded from the undocupal coalitions may turn out to be a blessing in disguise since Hill aides don't associate them with the 'toxic' 'embarassing' lobbying egos and vanities of the movement that rejected them.

Moreover, by focusing so strictly on Sen Durbin, other potential allies (esp in the Senate) have no opinion one way or another on the backlog fam. Most of the Senate, it seems, has never heard of them ... meaning advocacy bridges can be built that have never been burnt.

THAT SAID, this congress has all but become yet another disaster for immigrants. There's plenty of blame to go around, but not a whole lot of reporting left to do. Not like last year, anyway.

Anyway 😔 figured you should get it straight from me:

Is immigrant relief dead in the 117th Congress?

Maybe ... mostly ... but here's what I know for sure:

I will continue to cover immigration with the compassion, focus, and diligence we brought to the beat last year; but in Congress, which is my daily beat, we're gonna start covering other things, too.

Starting tomorrow, I will add student loan relief to the topics I cover in Congress, a topic I am excited af to cover on the Capitol beat. I hope you'll follow along; but if not, that's fine too. I understand.

Please keep sending me your immigration tips ...esp relating to Congress. Send me your student loan relief tips now, too, if you don't mind. I see a vast and important be there that's completely under covered in Congress and beyond.

pablo at @latinorebels dot com

Nite yall

a vast and important *beat

*revolving