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A leader of Senate Democrats’ drive to help millions of immigrants become citizens cast severe doubt on its prospects Monday, as one of President Joe Biden’s early priorities seemed in danger of running aground in a Congress his own party controls.
A top Republican senator, who’s been pivotal in past efforts to find bipartisan compromise on the issue, also expressed pessimism. Together, the comments by Dick Durbin, D-Ill, and Lindsey Graham, R-SC, underscored that immigration remains a complex problem for the two parties to tackle successfully, even with Donald Trump no longer in the White House.
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Republican demands to address the surge of young children and families at the Mexican border, plus a lack of needed support in both the House and Senate, were making passage of legislation unlikely, Durbin, his chamber’s No. 2 Democratic leader, told reporters.
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“I don’t see a means of reaching that,” Durbin, a veteran of past efforts to strike an immigration deal, said of a comprehensive Bill in this two-year Congress. “I want it. I think we are much more likely to deal with discrete elements” of such a plan.
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Yet in the same conversation, Durbin said Graham’s insistence on addressing the stream of migrants at the border would make it hard to deal even with individual, broadly popular immigration proposals. Among those would be forging a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers — US residents brought to the country illegally as children.
Graham said the border problems make it “much harder” to reach an agreement. He told reporters that he believes a comprehensive Bill won’t succeed this year.
Growing influx
Biden has proposed creating a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants in the US illegally. He also wants to reduce long waits for some visas, enhance border technology and help Central American nations in hopes of diminishing the need for people to leave those countries.
In recent days, the numbers of immigrant children and families trying to enter the US from Mexico have grown to magnitudes unseen since before the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans have highlighted that influx, as they seek to play offence against Democrats who won passage of a $1.9-trillion Covid-19 relief Bill that polls show has won wide public approval.
In its first weeks, Biden has been searching for ways to ease Trump’s harsh immigration policies, which included separating children from families caught trying to enter the US illegally as way to discourage them.
Durbin spoke three days before the House plans to approve a pair of Bills that would advance pieces of Democrats’ immigration agenda.
One of those measures would open up a chance for citizenship for Dreamers and people who fled war-torn countries. The other would make it easier for many immigrant farm workers to stay in the US and in some cases become citizens.
Both face uphill fights in the Senate, where Democrats would likely need at least 10 GOP votes in the 50-50 chamber.
One voice of optimism — Sen Robert Menendez, D-NJ, another player on immigration talks — said it was premature to rule out a wide-ranging Bill this year.
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