WASHINGTON — Key Senate Republicans are rejecting a request by a group of moderate Democrats to jettison their party-line efforts on immigration and instead work on a bipartisan solution.
The decision shows the GOP’s determination to go their own way on one of President Donald Trump’s top priorities, despite their wafer-thin House majority and other obstacles in the way of passing his agenda. It also comes as Democrats are divided on the issue of immigration and a significant faction of lawmakers in purple states and districts are staking out a more conservative stance on the issue.
Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a negotiator of past immigration deals, said the GOP isn’t going to rely on Democrats for a deal to beef up immigration enforcement.
“On border security, no,” Graham told NBC News, making clear that the GOP will instead use the Senate’s arcane budget process to bypass a filibuster and effectively cut out Democrats.
The push came in a Jan. 22 letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., which was led by Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and signed by 12 other Democrats, mostly from politically competitive states.
“We understand that Senate Republicans have discussed using the budget reconciliation process to advance border security budget measures without any Democratic input. While that’s your right, in working together on a bipartisan basis, we can achieve the best outcome for the American people,” the Democrats wrote. “We remain ready to work with you in good faith to craft legislation that can achieve bipartisan support and 60 votes in the Senate.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., laughed out loud when asked about the letter and whether Republicans might accept their overture.
“That’s a letter we will ignore,” Johnson said in an interview.
“We’re not going to wait for them. If they want to secure the border, they could have done that,” he added. “That’s not what they want.”
Thune’s office had no immediate comment on the letter, which was signed by a similar group of Democrats that voted to help Republicans pass the Laken Riley Act this week. The bill, which is headed to Trump’s desk, tightens current law to impose mandatory federal detention of unauthorized immigrants charged or convicted of committing non-violent crimes like theft and shoplifting.
Democrats in battleground states and districts are breaking with the bulk of their party on immigration, as they believe that the positions of progressives and leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are out of touch with their voters. The rightward shift comes after Democrats got clobbered on the issue of immigration in the 2024 election, and lost Latino men to Trump.
Another skeptic of the Democratic request is Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who negotiated a bipartisan immigration deal in 2018 to authorize $25 billion for a border wall and protect “Dreamers,” or people brought to the country unlawfully as children. Trump’s White House pressured Republicans to kill that agreement then.
“There is a group of us that would like to work together on immigration, but I don’t know what [Kelly] means by not doing anything on reconciliation. I don’t know how that fits in,” Rounds said Thursday. “If your question is: Will we delay funding the border needs until we could do a bipartisan approach? The answer to that is probably not. We do anticipate using reconciliation to bolster our defense, both totally, but also at the border as well.”
Rounds said Republicans have every intention of using the 50-vote budget process to beef up federal border enforcement.
“The one thing that we do know is that we can pick up resources under reconciliation for the defense of the border, and I would expect that we’ll continue to do that,” he said.
Asked about Republicans rebuffing his request, Kelly said, “Well, let’s see what they’re able to do in reconciliation. As you’re aware, folks in the House are having a hard time figuring out what they can get in there and what they can’t.”
He added that a bipartisan deal won’t be subject to the limits of the reconciliation process, in which “you can’t do policy” changes.
The GOP push hasn’t yet gotten off the ground as the party continues to debate whether to move Trump’s ambitious agenda in one big package or break it up into two bills. Many are nervous about the slim House Republican majority, seeing it as an obstacle.
Graham said Republicans want to give Trump $100 billion to crack down on illegal immigration, as the president eyes a mass deportation program and issues a flurry of executive orders.
The South Carolina Republican said that if Congress doesn’t give him the resources soon, he won’t be able to carry out his plans.
“Well, I think you hit a wall pretty quickly,” Graham said. “You’re gonna need the new money, and I worry about it.”
