Biden says it "remains to be seen" if an immigration solution can be included in the $ 3.5 billion package.

President Joe Biden on Sunday expressed doubts that a path to citizenship could be approved for thousands of immigrants in the country as part of a $ 3.5 billion social spending package being processed by Congress.

"There has to be a path to citizenship. What remains to be seen is whether he can be a part"

of that economic package, Biden said in statements to the press upon returning to the White House from Wilmington, Delaware, where he spent the weekend. .

Among them are dreamers, young people who came to the country as children, agricultural workers, essential workers and beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

The urgency to act in this regard increased recently when a Texas judge ordered the suspension of the processing of new applications for protection under the Deferred Action program (DACA), created in 2012 and which now protects some 650,000 Dreamers from deportation.

Democrats want to include a path to citizenship for thousands of undocumented immigrants in their social spending package, which they hope to pass

without a vote from the Republican opposition.

The reconciliation package has been presented as the second part of Biden's infrastructure agenda.

[How many immigrants would benefit from the reform promoted by the Democrats?

It will depend on its economic impact]

However, Biden already warned this week that it will be up to the Senate's legal advisor - who interprets the rules of the Upper House - to determine whether or not it is feasible to include immigration measures in a spending package approved by a special channel.

"That has to be decided by the Senate's legal advisor, not Joe Biden,"

the president said in statements to the press on Monday.

Democrats plan to pass the spending package through a legislative formula known as

reconciliation

that allows a bill to be carried out with a simple majority of 51 votes, instead of the 60 normally required.

That would give the Democrats, who have a tiny majority in the Senate, the chance to pass that measure alone;

but, to achieve this, they would need to unite the more moderate wing of the party and the progressive flank.

Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate continued negotiating this Sunday to try to have a final version of their infrastructure bill ready by Monday, which provides for an investment of about 1.2 billion dollars over eight years.

Republican Senator Rob Portman, who is leading bipartisan negotiations on that bill, told ABC television that the talks were "90% complete," but there were still disagreements about how much money should be spent on public transportation.

With information from Efe, AP and The Hill.