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Joe Biden has less than a year to cement his legacy as our 46th president. By the time next years midterms are over, his party is likely to lose control of the House and perhaps the Senate. If there ever was a time to go for broke, Joe, that time is now.

If you look at the accomplishments of presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, they took place during the first two years of their presidencies. Obama got very little done after he rescued the country from the economic abyss caused by the 2008 financial crisis and managed in 2010 to get Obamacare passed. He was held hostage in his last six years in office by a Republican-controlled Congress hellbent on making sure he never achieved another legislative victory.

For Trump, who began his one term in office with his party in control of the House and the Senate, the only significant piece of legislation he signed was the massive tax cuts given mostly to the rich and to a lesser extent the middle classes. He was pretty much a lame duck president once the Democrats took back control of the House in 2018.

Biden needs to heed the lessons of recent history, namely, that DC gridlock closely resembles driving on the 405 freeway in L.A. Its essential for him to get stuff done before next fall when his party may suffer crushing defeats and his role as president diminishes. After their parties lost in the midterms, both Obama and Trump were reduced to issuing executive orders as their only means of exercising presidential power.

I think Biden is in a unique and pivotal position because I doubt very much he will run for reelection. At 79, he appears frail and elderly. Its doubtful he will look more robust three years from now when he turns 82; far better for him to summon his remaining strength and strive to immediately accomplish as much as he can. Not having to worry about re-election should give him the courage to act boldly and decisively. Time is not on his side in many ways.

What should be his priorities? First, get signed into law the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and then fix a broken immigration system so that a clear pathway to citizenship can be given to the estimated 10.5 to 12 million undocumented immigrants now living in the country. The voting rights act is needed to preserve the integrity of our democracy and prevent Republicans at the state level from disenfranchising millions of minority voters. Passing immigration reform would improve the lives of the many immigrants living in limbo here for years who contribute to the economy by paying taxes and yet are forced to live in the shadows for fear of deportation.

Getting both priorities through Congress will be a daunting challenge. The Democrats really dont have a mandate based on last years election results to pursue their lofty progressive agenda. Biden was elected as a Bill Clinton centrist but wants to govern like an FDR New Deal president.

Roosevelt had sizable majorities in both chambers when he took office in 1932. He pushed 15 major bills through Congress in his administrations first 100 days. Biden has a razor-thin majority in the House and more like minority status in the Senate because Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema vote like moderate Republicans. The jury is still out on whether Biden can convince both of them to waive their opposition to eliminating the filibuster. If he cant, the Democrats will be stymied in their hope of getting any more significant legislation passed.

In spite of the criticism Biden has received for the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the fact that inflation is spiraling out of control under his watch, his first year in office has produced bipartisan legislation of historic importance. Getting a bitterly divided Congress to approve a $1.9 trillion COVID Relief Bill and a $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is the political equivalent of Moses parting the Red Sea.

While the money spent on economic assistance during the pandemic will be short lived and soon forgotten, the same cannot be said for the safer bridges, smoother roads, improved train travel and expanded access to broadband that urban and rural America will enjoy for generations.

Not since FDR established a federal program, the Tennessee Valley Authority, which brought electricity to rural parts of seven states in the South that were reliant upon kerosene lamps, will so many Americans directly benefit on a daily basis from government investments in improving the quality of their lives.

Even if sleepy, slow-moving, slow-talking, old Joe Biden doesnt succeed in getting his fractious party to sign on to reconciliation bills which dont require any Republican support, his two-year presidency will be remembered for what he did and not what he didnt do.

Yes, the Republicans will probably make his last two years in office miserable if they take back Congress in 2022, but they wont be able to repeal his signature legislation. Biden still has the power of the veto at his disposal which should be enough to kill any bills brought to his desk that attempt to repudiate what should serve as the crowning achievements of his presidency.

Biden can then ride off into the sunset at 82 knowing he not only was able to get Republicans to sign off on $3.1 trillion in federal spending but restored a respect for the rule of law in a country which only two weeks before he took office barely survived an insurrection incited by his predecessor.

Jay Wissot is a resident of Denver and Vail. Email him at jayhwissot@mac.com.

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Wissot: The two-year presidency | VailDaily.com - Vail Daily News

The House may soon vote on Democrats $1.75 trillion budget reconciliation bill, with provisions to shield undocumented immigrants living in the US from deportation and relieve long visa backlogs.

But like many of the immigration proposals from the last few decades, these new, critical immigration fixes appear unlikely to actually become law. So why is this latest round of immigration reform proposals probably doomed? Two reasons: because of the structure of the Senate and because, on immigration, identity issues have replaced policy.

The American public has never been more supportive of immigration, with a third saying that it should be increased. In 1986, the last time Congress passed a major immigration reform bill, only 7 percent of Americans supported increasing immigration levels. And narrower reforms, such as expanded protections for undocumented people already in the US, have been found to have majority support.

But despite that growth in public support, the House and Senate havent been able to reach bipartisan agreement on immigration in decades. Though comprehensive immigration reform bills passed one chamber in 2007 and 2013, they ultimately failed in the other. And while the House has passed bipartisan legislation addressing narrower immigration issues over the last couple of years, those bills have yet to gain traction in the Senate.

This has led to a Democratic insistence on trying to use the budget reconciliation process to address immigration, which would bypass the need for Republican support. So far, those efforts have failed. But Democrats havent given up on it yet.

As part of their social and climate spending package, known as the Build Back Better Act (BBB), Democrats initially sought to create a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants living in the US. That plan was rejected by the Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who is tasked with determining what can and cannot be passed via budget reconciliation.

Reconciliation allows bills to pass the Senate with a simple majority which Democrats have by one vote but for a provision to be included in a reconciliation package, it must have a more than incidental impact on the budget. A pathway to citizenship, MacDonough said, would be a tremendous and enduring policy change that dwarfs its budgetary impact. Democrats then proposed giving people who entered the US illegally prior to 2010 a pathway to green cards. MacDonough also nixed this plan.

This has led to Democrats plan C. Under the latest draft of the bill, undocumented immigrants would be given temporary protection from deportation through what is called parole for a period of five years. Those who arrived in the US prior to 2011 numbering an estimated 7 million could apply for five-year, renewable employment authorization.

The bill would also recover millions of green cards that went unused in the years since 1992. Under current law, any allotted green cards not issued by the end of the year become unavailable for the following year. In 2021, the US failed to issue some 80,000 green cards due to processing delays, and those cards have now gone to waste.

The bill also allows some people who have been waiting to be issued a green card for at least two years to pay additional fees to bypass certain annual and per-country limitations and become permanent residents years, if not decades, sooner than they would have otherwise. And the bill preserves green cards for Diversity Visa winners from countries with low levels of immigration to the US who were prevented from entering the country on account of Trump-era travel bans and the pandemic.

Those provisions, though short of desperately needed structural reform to the immigration system, would provide long-awaited assurance for many undocumented immigrants who have put down roots in the US and more opportunities for legal immigration at a time when the country could use more foreign workers. The provisions are also broadly popular: A recent poll from Data for Progress found that 75 percent of voters, including a majority of Republicans, back them.

Nevertheless, they may be on the chopping block.

In the House, Reps. Jesus Chuy Garcia, Adriano Espaillat, and Lou Correa have pushed for immigration reforms to be included in the reconciliation package. But even if they are ultimately successful, the provisions face two significant obstacles in the Senate: key moderates and the parliamentarian.

Moderate Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced last week that she supported the current provisions, but there is no word yet from Sen. Joe Manchin, who has expressed skepticism about addressing immigration in the bill. As Senate Democrats need every vote in their caucus, should Manchin refuse to back the provisions, theyd be effectively dead.

MacDonough has also yet to weigh in on the latest plan. But given that she twice rejected Democrats previous immigration proposals, she may do so again. Explaining why she rejected Democrats path to citizenship proposal in September, MacDonough wrote that the impact of the legislation far outweighed its budgetary consequences, making it inappropriate to include in a reconciliation bill.

It is by any standard a broad, new immigration policy, she said. The reasons that people risk their lives to come to this country to escape religious and political persecution, famine, war, unspeakable violence, and lack of opportunity in their home countries cannot be measured in federal dollars.

She also asserted that, if she were to allow Democrats to pass the measure through reconciliation, that might be used as a precedent to justify revoking any immigrants legal status in future reconciliation bills.

Proponents of including immigration in reconciliation have asserted that MacDonough might take a different tack when it comes to plan C, in part because it doesnt create any new, permanent legal protections that werent previously authorized by Congress. But her September opinion suggests that she opposes any use of reconciliation that has far-reaching consequences for immigrants.

No one can be categorically sure about what shes going to do. But theres enough in her opinion to suggest that she will think this was too big a reach in reconciliation, said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

Despite calls to overrule or even fire the parliamentarian, Democrats have made it clear they plan to abide by her ruling. As Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez said in a September press call, The parliamentarian is the final word of what is and not permitted under the rules.

These barriers mean immigration reform seems to be proving elusive once again. Experts say thats because immigration has shifted from a matter of policy to a matter of identity, and that as this shift was happening, the way Congress functions changed drastically.

Chishti said that the immigration debate previously used to be principally focused on ideas: Is immigration good for the country or not? What kind of immigration is good for the country high-skilled, low-skilled? Do we need more finance people or more nurses?

And there used to be immigration proponents and skeptics in both parties. For instance, labor unions used to advocate for restrictionist immigration policies, though that shifted in the 2000s. Business-minded Republicans recognized the economic benefits of immigration. Now, the debate is more tied up in identity. It has also grown in electoral importance, with voters ranking it the third most important issue facing the country after the coronavirus and the economy in a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll earlier this year.

Immigration is all about culture and race. It is about peoples perception of how immigration is changing our country, Chishti said. Its much more emotional.

What has also changed is Congresss reliance on the filibuster. During the era in which the 1986 bill was passed, you could count on one hand the number of times the filibuster was invoked, Chishti said. Now, if a majority in the Senate doesnt support legislation, it doesnt even get considered.

That makes it hard, but perhaps not impossible, to build consensus around immigration.

Should their efforts to include immigration in the reconciliation bill fail, Democrats might not have another chance to pursue their policy priorities until after next years midterms and thats assuming they maintain control of both chambers of Congress, a scenario thats very much in doubt. A Republican Congress may not be interested in immigration reform at all, especially if they intend to use immigration as an electoral weapon against the Biden administration and the Democratic party.

Regardless of who controls Congress in 2023, there might be room for compromise on narrower reforms to the legal immigration system that relate to the economy, according to Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

A Bipartisan Policy Center-Morning Consult poll conducted in May found that, across the political spectrum, people were more likely to be willing to compromise on the issues of providing visas for immigrants supporting the US economy where companies cannot find US workers and providing visas for immigrants investing in research and innovation for future growth of the US economy.

While those issues dont represent the top priorities of either party on immigration, addressing them might have important corollary impacts. Creating new legal pathways for foreign workers might mitigate unauthorized immigration at the southern border and also open opportunities for undocumented immigrants already living in the US to get legal status.

If we legalize everybody in the country tomorrow, we still have the same system in place that made them become undocumented, Cardinal Brown said. What do we do with the next person? Unless we fix our legal immigration system, well continue to be in that position.

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Immigration fixes may not survive in Democrats budget reconciliation bill - Vox.com

This is an excerpt from the newsletter for The Weeds. To sign up for a weekly dive into policy and its effects on people, click here.

Less than one year into his first term, President Joe Biden has so far disappointed one significant part of the Democratic base: immigration advocates.

As Nicole Narea explained for Vox, Biden hasnt rolled back even some of the most criticized policies carried out by former President Donald Trump. And its clear Biden hasnt prioritized immigration reform broadly, with Covid-19, the economy, and climate change all taking priority. Even as some Democrats tried, in a long-shot effort, to get immigration reform into the infrastructure and Build Back Better bills, Biden has mostly left the issue to Congress to work out.

As disappointing as this is to some progressives, theres a political calculation behind Bidens moves: The research suggests that immigration leads to a potentially huge political backlash, and Biden might have decided that neglecting immigration is the price he has to pay to try to get the rest of his agenda done.

A recent review of the evidence by Alberto Alesina and Marco Tabellini found that immigrants often, but not always, trigger backlash, increasing support for anti-immigrant parties and lowering preferences for redistribution and diversity among natives. The shift, the study concluded, seems to arise as a result of cultural, rather than economic, backlash.

Another recent study, from Christopher Claassen and Lauren McLaren, focused on immigration in European countries. They found public backlash in the short to medium run, where mood turns negative and concern about immigration rises.

But there was some good news for immigration advocates: As people get used to immigrants, the backlash seems to fade over one to three decades.

Of course, that good news is of little interest to Biden and the current Democratic Party. Theyre interested in the next year, with the 2022 midterm elections in front of mind. And even the more optimistic study finds a public backlash in the short and medium term.

You dont really need studies to see this in the real world, especially in recent years. Trumps rise in 2016 was built on concerns about immigration. And as the evidence indicates, that backlash was largely cultural in nature thats what the warning of taco trucks [on] every corner was all about.

But its not just the US. As Europe dealt with a large influx of refugees in recent years, far-right politicians managed to take advantage of the situation to build power. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed 1 million refugees into the country, the far-right AfD won enough seats to become the largest opposition party in the countrys legislature. Things ultimately worked out for Merkel and Germany, but notably only after she took steps to stop the flow of refugees and adopted some hardline rhetoric about immigration going as far as declaring, Multiculturalism is a sham.

That suggests an uncomfortable possibility for many progressives: Backlash to immigration seems like a staple of most modern Western democracies.

For Democrats, this conclusion means uncomfortable questions: Is action on immigration now really worth the return of Trump or the rise of other Trump-like figures over the next two or four years? If that backlash leads to Republicans in power, would immigration reform mean less action on a host of other issues, from health care to climate change? And would immigration reform simply be repealed in that backlash scenario anyway?

This has already led some progressive leaders around the world, from Denmark to New Zealand, to take a tough stance on immigration. They appear to have decided that sacrificing one cause is worth carrying out other priorities.

The Biden administration isnt quite into tough on immigration territory yet. But hes working within a framework in which immigration has to be treated cautiously, as he tries to balance his whole agenda with campaign promises about a very divisive, volatile issue.

A recent analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation confirmed theres still a lot of misinformation about Covid-19 and the vaccines out there.

A team led by Liz Hamel surveyed Americans on their views about the coronavirus. They found that 78 percent of adults in the US have heard at least one false statement about Covid-19 (of eight surveyed) and either believe it or dont know if its true or false.

The researchers also found that the news sources people relied on correlated with their Covid-19 beliefs. The share who hold at least four misconceptions is small (between 11-16%) among those who say they trust COVID-19 information from network news, local TV news, CNN, MSNBC, and NPR, they wrote. This share rises to nearly four in ten among those who trust COVID-19 information from One America News (37%) and Fox News (36%), and to nearly half (46%) among those who trust information from Newsmax.

Its not clear if right-wing media sources are fueling the misconceptions, or if people who already believe the misinformation are more likely to go to right-wing media for their news, the researchers noted.

But right-wing media, its safe to say, isnt helping with Fox News segments, for example, baselessly questioning the efficacy and safety of the Covid-19 vaccines on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, its not clear what the solutions to all of this are. Officials across the country, including some Republicans, have spent much of the past two years trying to counter Covid-related misinformation. Yet those efforts have clearly struggled as shown by Kaisers findings.

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Why Biden has disappointed on immigration reform - Vox.com

FILE - A woman seeking asylum in the United States waits with others for news of policy changes, Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, in Tijuana, Mexico. On Friday, Oct. 29, 2021, the Biden administration launched a second bid to end a Trump-era policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

PHOENIX U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona said she supports adding protections for undocumented immigrants to the federal spending bill but has some reservations.

I do support the immigration proposals that are being offered in the upcoming reconciliation package, Sinema, a Democrat, said during a call with Arizona reporters Monday.

I also recognize that there are legal limitations to what can be done in a reconciliation package.

She explained shes waiting to see what immigration policies can be included in the bill according to the Senate parliamentarian, who has rejected two plans already, including a path to legalization for some undocumented immigrants.

Sinema said she does anticipate the Senate will abide by the parliamentarians decision despite calls from immigration advocates to disregard it.

But to be clear, Arizonans know I do support a comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship for individuals who are Americans in everything but name, Sinema added.

Meanwhile, Democrats in the House of Representatives are considering adding to the reconciliation bill a five-year parole that would allow some undocumented immigrants to stay and work in the U.S.

The protection would be renewable for another five years.

It has the support of Bob Worsley, a former Republican state senator from Mesa and co-chair of the American Business Immigration Coalition.

We think thats at least a way for this group of people who are here without documents to have some legal status and to come out of the shadows, he said.

Worsley said an estimated 7 million immigrants would benefit from the parole and could immediately work legally.

He noted with more than 10 million job openings across the country, this could help address the current labor shortage.

Some of them are already working in the fields, hotels, restaurants and construction sites, Worsley said. But employers are taking risks of not having them be legal, and this would take that risk away.

Worsley, who founded specialty publishing company SkyMall, added he supports a comprehensive immigration reform that paves a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants, especially young dreamers brought to the country as children. But he said it would be hard to pass in Congress right now because of Republican opposition.

Well take what we can get, he said. Were pragmatists.

She told reporters during Mondays call that shes working with Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas to come up with bipartisan legislation that addresses part but not all of the immigration crisis that we face.

Her office told KTAR News 92.3 FM those efforts are separate from her support for a path to citizenship.

Its been over 30 years since Congress has effectively addressed the immigration crisis, and we in Arizona have been paying the price for it during those 30 plus years, she said.

So it is past time for Congress to take action.

Have a story idea or tip? Pass it along to the KTAR News team here.

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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema supports adding immigration policies to spending bill - KTAR.com

Nov. 15Consuelo Nieto didn't leave her home country so much as she brought it with her when she moved to the United States.

The founder of at least one of Bakersfield folkloric dance troupes and a singer in a local mariachi band, Nieto made sure local youth of Mexican heritage learned about the the deep roots of their Hispanic culture.

"Connie was always very proud of her culture, her heritage," said Erlinda Manzano, whose mother, newspaper publisher Esther H. Manzano, was a friend of Nieto's.

But Nieto didn't stop there. She often helped other immigrants like her by pushing for immigration reform, attending conventions and even decorating cakes bearing the logo of the Mexican American Political Association, in which she had become involved. As a day job, she helped others file paperwork legitimizing their residency in the United States.

Nieto died Nov. 8 at the age of 79. The cause of her death was not available.

She is remembered as a woman who gave generously of her time to help others new to the country. Well known within the local Hispanic community, Nieto was active in the early days of the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

"She was a good member to help us through all the stumbling blocks and roadblocks," said Manuel G. Lerma, one of the chamber's founding members. "If you asked her to do something, she helped you out."

But it was in cultural representation that Nieto shone brightest. She loved to sing and dance, and that came through when she worked with young people.

She took her folkloric groups to schools as a way of introducing students to Mexican art and culture, and would help raise money to buy the pricey costumes the dances require.

Nieto also made a name for herself as a cake decorator, as well as a mariachi singer at a time women weren't often known for doing that.

Those who knew her well remember her as a charming person with a great sense of humor.

"She was a real caring person, very personal," Lerma said. "She got along with everyone."

Story continues

Born July 20, 1942, in Leon, Guanajuato the younger sister of two brothers, Nieto gained U.S. citizenship in her early 20s. Settling in Bakersfield, she made a career at the Kern County Economic Opportunity Corp., where she worked as an immigration specialist. As a volunteer, she helped local attorneys who served the less fortunate.

Preceded in death by her husband, Richard Nieto Sr., and by her brothers Ralph and Jose Bermudez, she is survived by her three children, Nancy Kay Morales, Richard Nieto Jr. and Patricia Ann Chamberlin; seven grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; as well as many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

A viewing has been scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Thursday, with a 7 p.m. Rosary, at Kern River Family Mortuary. A memorial service and Mass is set for noon Friday at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 1515 Baker St., to be followed immediately by a 1 p.m. graveside service at Greenlawn Funeral Home Northeast, 3700 River Blvd. There will be a celebration of life event after the graveside service at Druids Lodge, 501 Sumner St.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking people donate in her honor to the Leukemia Research Foundation.

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Consuelo Bermudez Nieto (1942-2021): Immigrant spread cultural understanding, helped others new to the country - Yahoo News