{"id":9095,"date":"2025-05-12T08:33:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T08:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/we-dont-have-to-choose-gallego-launches-border-and-immigration-platform\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T08:33:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T08:33:47","slug":"we-dont-have-to-choose-gallego-launches-border-and-immigration-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/we-dont-have-to-choose-gallego-launches-border-and-immigration-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We don\u2019t have to choose\u2019: Gallego launches border and immigration platform"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego launched a new immigration plan<\/a> Monday as he looks to maintain his high-profile voice as a key messenger on the issue \u2014 and as a rising star in the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

Gallego suggests ramping up border security by hiring more agents and investing in port infrastructure and drug detection technology, while reforming the asylum system by speeding up the process and treating migrants with \u201cdignity and respect.\u201d The Arizona senator also argues that lawmakers must expand legal pathways for immigrants who are fueling the economy across key industries, including in agriculture, health care and construction.<\/p>\n

The plan also says that undocumented immigrants \u2014 including Dreamers and spouses of U.S. citizens who have long been living in the country and contributing to the U.S. economy \u2014 should have a pathway to citizenship. Gallego also includes ideas for addressing root causes of migration by ensuring other countries also work to resettle asylum seekers and take steps to combat regional instability, drug cartels and economic crises.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to choose between border security and immigration reform. We can and should do both,\u201d Gallego says in a video that will be released later Monday, according to a transcript first shared with Blue Light News. \u201cWe need to secure the southern border, reform our asylum system, expand legal pathways to citizenship, protect Dreamers and tackle the reasons why people leave their homes in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats have long struggled to cut through GOP messaging on immigration, a challenge that peaked in the 2024 presidential race. Since President Donald Trump\u2019s return to power, Democratic leaders have debated when and how to wade into the fight \u2014 and what message might resonate best with voters.<\/p>\n

Gallego broke with most Democrats by voting in January for the Laken Riley Act, a now-enacted GOP-authored bill that expanded the circumstances under which authorities are required to hold undocumented immigrants accused of crimes. He told POLITICO at the time<\/a> that his vote represented \u201cworking-class Latinos from Arizona.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to bring some more real truth about what people are thinking,\u201d he said, calling some of the immigration advocacy groups that opposed the bill \u201clargely out of touch with where your average Latino is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The approach laid out in Gallego\u2019s plan \u2014 a message that tackles both border security and fixes to a broken immigration system \u2014 is one Democrats are increasingly zeroing in on, especially as polls show some weaknesses in Trump\u2019s aggressive immigration agenda. <\/p>\n

The Arizona senator, who eked out a two-point Senate victory in Arizona last year even as former Vice President Kamala Harris fell to Trump, argues that he has credibility as a border-state lawmaker and has seen the immigration system\u2019s \u201cdysfunction firsthand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Democrats\u2019 move also comes on the heels of his weekend stop in the critical battleground of Pennsylvania, which has already sparked speculation that he\u2019s interested in a future presidential bid.<\/p>\n

When NBC asked him there about a potential run for the White House, the Arizona Democrat said, \u201cHas it ever crossed my mind? Fucking of course, I\u2019m an elected official, it crosses my mind. Am I thinking about it right now? Absolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego launched a new immigration plan Monday as he looks to maintain his high-profile voice as a key messenger on the issue \u2014 and as a rising star in the Democratic Party. Gallego suggests ramping up border security by hiring more agents and investing in port infrastructure and drug detection technology, while […]<\/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-9095","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\/9095","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=9095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9095\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}