Democratic senators pitch their GOP colleagues on bipartisan immigration reform

While President Trump is using GOP control of Washington to impose drastic reforms and immigration crackdowns, some Democrats are proposing an olive branch.

A group of Senate Democrats Wednesday penned a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, petitioning him to reconsider using budget reconciliation, a parliamentary maneuver used to advance massive bills through the Senate without having to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold. Republicans control 53 seats in the chamber.

“We understand that Senate Republicans have discussed using the budget reconciliation process to advance border security budget measures without any Democratic input,” read the letter, signed by 13 senators led by Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona. “While that's your right, in working together on a bipartisan basis, we can achieve the best outcome for the American people.”

But getting bipartisan immigration reform across the finish line in Congress is easier said than done, if history is any indication. The reconciliation effort will be the latest chapter in the partisan tête-à-tête over an issue that’s eluded compromise for decades on Capitol Hill. And it’s not clear Trump is interested in working with Democrats on an immigration solution he would likely deem too soft given the aggressive anti-immigration moves he’s made during his first week in office.

Last year, a bipartisan deal secured in the Senate that addressed border policy collapsed at the 11th hour when Trump, who wielded illegal immigration as a powerful campaign theme, pressured GOP lawmakers to tank it.

Kelly told National Journal on Wednesday that immigration is “something we have a lot of common ground on with Republicans.” He said reconciliation bills often deal with issues “where there's not a lot of common ground."

"This is one we've demonstrated, even recently, that there is,” he said.

The Senate on Monday passed the Laken Riley Act, 64-35, with 12 Democratic senators voting with every Republican. Many of those same senators are the ones who signed Wednesday’s letter. Forty-six House Democrats joined 217 Republicans in voting for the measure Wednesday, sending it on to Trump for his signature.

The bill would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain any undocumented individuals arrested for theft and other charges. States would also be authorized to take civil action against federal officials for not enforcing such detentions.

Democrats “want to protect Dreamers [and do] border-security stuff,” Kelly said. “And if we do this, working with Republicans, it tends to last longer when it's bipartisan.”

“I think we can get this done. It would be a mistake for Republicans to just try to go this [on] their own. And I think we could be successful, and it'll be better legislation,” Sen. John Hickenlooper, another signatory, told National Journal. “I think we were very, very close in the last Congress to meaningful reform. And it was a difficult bill. I'm not wildly excited about the bill. I think there are things that troubled me and trouble a lot of Democrats, and there are things that trouble Republicans. That's usually a good compromise.

“I think that there's a good chance if we get this on the floor, that we have a good shot, at least in the Senate. We have to work to get it through the House,” Hickenlooper said.

The bill in the last Congress was crafted by Republican Sen. James Lankford, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, and recently retired independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

Lankford declined to comment Wednesday when asked about the possibility of reviving the bipartisan effort in the Senate.

A Senate Republican aide told National Journal that nothing is off the table, but they are also aware of the math from the House side. The historically slim GOP majority shrank even further this week when another member—Rep. Michael Waltz—resigned to join the Trump administration as national security adviser. The majority is now 218-215, meaning a switch of two Republicans could scuttle any bill Democrats universally oppose.

Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, said of his Democratic colleagues' request, “I've been here a long time, and we talk about bipartisan immigration reform, and it never seems to happen. So, I think that's more for positioning than it is real.”

Democrats in the letter also noted there are “limitations to what can be done under budget reconciliation, and as we’ve seen time and time again, no party has all the solutions on this or any issue.”

Under reconciliation, the legislation must not raise the deficit beyond a 10-year budget window, and its provisions must have a direct budgetary consequence and must not make changes to Social Security.

With such narrow margins in both chambers, getting a reconciliation bill through Congress also won’t be easy. It was a heavy lift for Democrats in the first two years of the Biden administration, as they struggled for months to get the Inflation Reduction Act through due to progressive pushback in the House and centrists' concerns in the Senate.

And there is still uncertainty about what the reconciliation legislation would look like, even down to its most basic foundation: whether it will be two bills, as Thune has been pushing, or “one big, beautiful bill,” as Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have been advocating.

Following a meeting of the GOP conference Wednesday, House Republicans said they remain undecided about how to proceed as they also discussed potential ways to pay for the legislation that could run into the trillions of dollars.

And Democrats face a huge hurdle: Trump is now occupying the White House instead of former President Biden, who had advocated for the bipartisan immigration bill.

“I think if the Senate and the House pass something, and it's got border security in it, and it goes to his desk, I think he'll sign it,” Kelly said.

Hickenlooper said: “I think the president is a dealmaker who might well see this as an opportunity to do his thing at the same time as we create a bill like this and actually create a long-term solution.”

But it’s not clear whether Trump is even interested in making a deal.

He’s issued executive orders to eliminate birthright citizenship and plans to send hundreds of active-duty troops to the southern border. He’s lifted restrictions that prevented federal officers from arresting undocumented immigrants at schools, churches, and other sensitive locations. His administration has reportedly ordered federal prosecutors to go after state and local officials who they believe are interfering with immigration crackdowns.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Emancipation Hall on Monday, Trump said he chose to focus more on the immigration issue than on inflation during the election, adding, "How many times can you say an apple is double in cost?"

Sen. Ruben Gallego told National Journal the letter is “a response to what we heard on the campaign trail for two years from Arizonans from all [walks] of life—is that they want to see bipartisan work on border security and immigration."

"We've just got to start talking," he added.