{"id":4586,"date":"2025-01-07T22:34:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T22:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrats-make-a-right-turn-on-immigration\/"},"modified":"2025-01-07T22:34:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T22:34:21","slug":"democrats-make-a-right-turn-on-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrats-make-a-right-turn-on-immigration\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats make a right turn on immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A rightward national shift on border-related concerns helped give Republicans control of the White House and Senate \u2014 and the consequences are playing out on Capitol Hill this week with Democrats showing a new willingness to follow the GOP\u2019s lead on illegal immigration.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an unmistakable sign that some in the Democratic ranks are moving in step with the electorate, abandoning their party\u2019s old pieties on those issues and embracing tough new enforcement measures.<\/p>\n

Forty-eight House Democrats voted Tuesday to advance an illegal immigration crackdown known as the Laken Riley Act<\/a>, a bill named for a Georgia nursing student murdered last year by an undocumented immigrant. That\u2019s up from the 37 Democrats who backed the bill last March.<\/p>\n

The Senate is set to take up the bill Friday, and already three Democrats, including Sens. John Fetterman<\/a> of Pennsylvania and Gary Peters<\/a> of Michigan, are planning to advance it \u2014 raising the likelihood that it will be able to vault a filibuster and eventually be signed into law by President-elect Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Republican leaders are eager to put Democrats on their heels, forcing them to quickly choose whether it\u2019s a moment to resist or side with the GOP. This week\u2019s votes will offer early clues on how both sides will chart their path forward on Trump\u2019s top priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to take a different approach with immigration,\u201d said Rep. Nikki Budzinski<\/a> (D-Ill.), who voted for the bill Tuesday. \u201cWhat shouldn\u2019t be lost is that we have to fix this system and do more than just one piece of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats previously denigrated measures like the Laken Riley Act, which would require the detention of any undocumented immigrant charged with theft or burglary, as \u201cmessaging bills\u201d meant to stir up political passions, not to solve complex policy problems.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the election, some Democrats raised alarms about how voters were repulsed by a seemingly out-of-control southern border. And now, with more ascribing the party\u2019s setbacks to those issues, some lawmakers said they felt doubly compelled to back the GOP-led legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened in South Texas tells you a lot,\u201d said Trump-district Rep. Henry Cuellar<\/a> (D-Texas), referring to massive GOP gains on the presidential ticket in areas along the Rio Grande. \u201cWe don\u2019t want the folks to shift downballot, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fetterman and Peters signaled they will vote for the measure when it\u2019s taken up by the Senate on Friday; Peters, a former national campaign committee chair, is up for reelection next year, while Fetterman is up in 2028 and hasn\u2019t ruled out a presidential bid. Sen. Jon Ossoff<\/a> (D-Ga.) is also expected to vote to advance the bill, according to a person familiar with his plans.<\/p>\n

Newly elected Sens. Elissa Slotkin<\/a> (D-Mich.) and Ruben Gallego<\/a> (D-Ariz.) both voted for the bill last year when they were House members. If they vote the same way this time, the measure would only need three more Democratic votes to break a filibuster.<\/p>\n

Most of the House Democrats who broke ranks to vote for the legislation Tuesday were purple-district members and newly elected swing district lawmakers like Reps. George Whitesides<\/a> and Dave Min<\/a> \u2014 who were among seven Californians backing the bill. But safe-seat lawmakers backed the legislation, too \u2014 such as Reps. Brendan Boyle<\/a> (D-Pa.), Joe Courtney<\/a> (D-Conn.) and Terri Sewell<\/a> (D-Ala.).<\/p>\n

Even Democrats who remained opposed have undergone their own subtle rhetorical shift. Few in the party openly disputed a need to crack down on border-related crime or to enforce immigration laws. Instead, they cited process-related issues like concerns the bill could lead to more immigration detentions or would sweep up DACA recipients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think violence in this country is unacceptable no matter who commits any act of violence, and we also have to have a strong foundation for the rule of law,\u201d said purple-district Rep. Gabe Vasquez<\/a> (D-N.M.), who voted against the bill Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Republicans are using the Laken Riley bill to make clear their intent to prioritize immigration as Trump prepares his return to Washington. They also view it as an early opportunity to put Democrats on record as they come to terms with voters\u2019 apparent rejection of their party\u2019s approach to immigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are going to have to make a decision, and, you know, it\u2019s now a bipartisan bill,\u201d said Sen. John Barrasso<\/a> (R-Wyoming) after Fetterman voiced support on Monday. \u201cYou have a couple of Democrats who have now just joined the Senate, who were members of the House and voted for it, Gallego and Slotkin. So we would hope that they would vote for it as well. And we’re going to see what the Georgia senators do, too. This happened in Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Raphael Warnock<\/a> (D-Ga.) declined to say Tuesday how he would vote.<\/p>\n

The GOP still faces momentous challenges as it tries to pass the remainder of its border policy agenda. For much of it, they are counting on using the budget reconciliation process, which would not require Democratic help.<\/p>\n

As Republicans hash out their overall reconciliation strategy \u2014 including whether to try and pass a smaller border-focused bill first \u2014 Trump will move quickly to crack down on immigration in the days after he takes office, rolling out executive actions, moving to undo Biden administration policies and beginning the process of deporting hundreds of thousands of people.<\/p>\n

Legal setbacks are inevitable, even as his team works to craft executive orders that can withstand court challenges, and Trump will be looking to Congress for additional funding and resources to build upon his agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all belts and suspenders,\u201d said Michael Hough, director of federal relations at NumbersUSA, an immigration restrictionist group. \u201cExecutive actions are great, because it\u2019s the immediate fix, immediate cure, but it\u2019s not a permanent one. We still want to see legislative changes go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the rules governing reconciliation likely preclude the inclusion of sweeping immigration restrictions. Enacting law, in other words, will require Democrats\u2019 participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think immigration policy is going to be impossible for them in reconciliation,\u201d said Rep. Veronica Escobar<\/a> (D-Texas). \u201cWe found that out when we had the majority, and they are counting on incoming President Trump and his executive orders, but they frankly need us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rightward national shift on border-related concerns helped give Republicans control of the White House and Senate \u2014 and the consequences are playing out on Capitol Hill this week with Democrats showing a new willingness to follow the GOP\u2019s lead on illegal immigration. It\u2019s an unmistakable sign that some in the Democratic ranks are moving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}