In the last three weeks, Senate Democrats have tried to squeeze two separate amnesty provisions into their monster $3.5 trillion spending spree. This overall legislative effort is essentially a grab-bag of far-left policy fantasies, but the amnesty attempts were the proverbial bridge too far for even the Senate parliamentarian, who ruled that neither provision was sufficiently budget related to qualify as part of the budget reconciliation process. (See here and here.)

Opponents of amnesty breathed a sigh of relief. But such a reaction is premature, primarily because it is naïve to assume that Democratic leadership would let the current legislative push pass them by without some sort of sop to the illegal immigrant community in the United States.