The day President Biden took office, he promised to send a bill to Congress to create a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants. Unfortunately, that bill,  the US Citizenship Act, It has made little progress since it was unveiled in February. Not even the approval in the House of Representatives of the Law Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act in March it produced a legislative solution. Fortunately, there remains one possible way for President Biden to deliver on one of his greatest promises: the budget reconciliation process.

Unlike the normal legislative process, bills that go through the reconciliation process are not subject to Senate filibuster. That means a budget reconciliation bill could pass with a majority of just 50 votes, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tiebreaker.

As a result, Democrats could create a path to citizenship without any Republican support if they unify all 50 senators at their election meeting and a majority in the House to pass a budget reconciliation bill. Given the opportunity, President Biden himself has said that he supports this immigration process. Additionally, a key swing state senator, Joe Manchin (D-WV) has also signaled his support for including immigration in the reconciliation bill.

However, the ability of Senate Democrats to create a path to citizenship through reconciliation is not a guarantee. For a provision of the law to pass through budget reconciliation, it must satisfy the "Byrd Rule." This rule says that reconciliation cannot be used for provisions that are “outside” of the federal budget. In other words, provisions that are not related to the basic purpose of raising and spending money cannot be passed through reconciliation.

Fortunately, there is a historical precedent for using reconciliation to increase immigration. In 2005, Senate Republicans passed a bill through the reconciliation process that would have greatly increased employment-based immigration. They did so by imposing a $ 500 fee on immigrant visa petitions in those categories.

The imposition of new fees in the 2005 reconciliation bill allowed senators to expand immigration through a way that the "Byrd Rule" passed. It also offers a plan for how Democrats could create a path to citizenship in the 2021 budget reconciliation bill through some kind of fee to collect revenue on applications for legal status.

Typically, the decision on whether a bill can pass the "Byrd Rule" is made by the Senate Parliamentarian, an attorney hired by the Senate to decide on Senate procedural matters. However, even if the MP decided that an immigration provision could not be passed through a budget reconciliation bill, that decision could theoretically be overturned by Vice President Harris.

Given the difficulty of creating a path to citizenship through normal Senate procedures, budget reconciliation may be the only realistic option left for Democrats. With DACA in limbo after a court decision that affected the program just a few weeks ago, the need for a permanent path to status has never been greater. Now is the time.