“This has been a losing political issue, but they’re still going to be doing it,” Mr. Schulte added. “It’s up to Democrats to decide. The Republican Party cannot stop the Democrats from passing the DREAM Act.”
The White House shares frustration.
“We have a lot of critics, but many of them are not putting forward a lot of solutions,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, stated on Monday.
Democrats anticipate solely a handful of Republicans to vote for the Dreamers invoice, which additionally handed in 2019, and barely extra to approve the farmworkers invoice, which is the product of bipartisan negotiations and would additionally revamp an agricultural visa program for future migrants. Together, they’d impact as many as 5 million folks.
Mr. Biden’s extra complete plan has even much less help. Moderate Democrats have been hesitant to take tough votes on a invoice they know shall be pilloried by Republicans and are pushing for a change in strategy to extra intently resemble previous efforts that traded legalization of undocumented employees for tighter safety on the border.
Representative Henry Cuellar, a centrist Democrat from a border district in Texas, stated he wish to see “something a little more moderate, especially when it comes to border security.” But he conceded discovering a deal was like a balloon: “You press on one side, it expands on the other and you lose some people.”
In the meantime, Republicans odor a potent political weapon.
“Joe Biden and those around him in the White House recognize this is a political catastrophe for them,” Mr. Cotton stated in an interview. “They are caught between a rock and a hard spot. On the one hand, you have large numbers of the American people who disapprove of what they see at the border. On the other hand, you have a strong voice in the Democratic Party that disparages borders in general, that thinks we should be granting asylum to all these people.”
Luke Broadwater contributed reporting.
