In 2019, at the height of the anti-Trump resistance movement, several Democrats running for president took unapologetically progressive positions on immigration.
During the debate, when asked if they supported decriminalizing unauthorized border crossings, the majority of White House candidates on stage raised their hands, leading to a wave of enthusiastic liberals pointing to then-President Donald Trump’s border crossings. He was surprised by the response and expressed the view that this may be what he was looking for. A radically different approach.
The Washington Post reported at the time that Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), a leading candidate for the White House, supported eliminating criminal penalties for people who cross the border illegally to seek asylum, more than five years later. It was reported that he had changed direction and joined the centrist party. Another group of ambitious Democrats said they would vote to advance Republican-led legislation to crack down on illegal immigration.
The sharp U-turn is the latest sign that leftist resistance is crumbling as a second Trump era dawns in Washington. On Wednesday, eight Senate Democrats, including many of the party’s rising stars and 2028 presidential candidates, said they would move forward with a bill to detain undocumented immigrants charged with theft and robbery. , the content was sufficient to begin debate in the Senate. Dozens of House Democrats supported the bill on Tuesday, including some who are rumored to be eyeing senior positions.
This is a far cry from President Trump’s first term, when his so-called Muslim ban and family separation policies lit a fire under an outraged base and sparked violent protests attended by Democratic senators and representatives. It was something. There will be no more street marches, a new reality among Democrats following President Trump’s landslide victory, driven by opposition to President Joe Biden’s border controls and a general shift in public opinion on blocking immigration. occurred. Stay here. And efforts to discredit President Trump’s border policies have failed.
“The reaction in 2016 was dramatic. There was a Women’s March right after the election,” said Mark Longabaugh, a former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vermont) presidential campaign. . “This time, it seems like we’ve almost reached a level of resignation. So, so far, we haven’t seen many avenues of resistance. And in fact, this means that at least Democrats in Congress are either of the center or the right on immigration.” I think this shows that they recognize the need to shift to
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania), the first Senate Democrat to introduce the House bill known as the Laken Riley Act, said he supports the bill and considers how voters in battleground states view the issue. He urged the party to do so. . Mr. Trump won Pennsylvania in November, where Republicans also won a landslide victory in the low-ballot state, ousting Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, whose name was close to political royalty in the state.
“I pretend I’m in a Walmart parking lot in Scranton and I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m going to vote against a bill that would allow people to deport people who have been charged with a crime or have a criminal record.'” That’s it. How do you think it will end? Fetterman said. “So when you try to make that argument, we lose.”
During the 2024 campaign, Republican Dave McCormick attacked Casey as weak on the border and tried to link him to Biden. Casey was once known as a moderate, but in recent years he has moved to the left, embracing the anti-Trump resistance movement. In January 2017, Casey rushed to Philadelphia International Airport to join demonstrators against a ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries.
Last year, Republicans and their allies spent hundreds of millions of dollars on attack ads slamming Democratic candidates for their stance on immigration and linking rising crime rates to an increase in illegal immigration. On Tuesday, few of the endangered House Democrats were prepared to hold a second vote that could be weaponized against them in the 2026 midterm elections.
Nearly 50 of them, many from vulnerable neighborhoods, voted in favor of the Laken-Riley bill on Tuesday. His name is a Georgia nursing student who was murdered by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. And they will be joined by at least a handful of Senate Democrats who already support it, or at least have pledged to push for it.
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pennsylvania), a rising star in the party, was one of the House Democrats to vote for the bill after opposing another bill last year.
“It’s frustrating that no one seems to be reporting that these are two different bills. Last year’s version included outrageous attacks on the administration, including blaming President Biden for the murder of Laken Riley. It included.” “This version has removed all inflammatory language attacking Democrats.”
Anthony Rivera-Rodriguez, a spokesman for Hickenlooper, said he “does not support the Laken-Reilly Act in its current form,” but is “interested in voting to pass the revised bill.” He did not provide details on how he would change the bill.
Another reason for the shift in immigration policy among Democrats is the widespread desire for realism during the next two years of unified Republican control, which erased the party’s appetite to oppose Republican policies. It is a creeping fatigue.
Democrats are still reckoning with last November’s widespread losses, hampering their ability to mount an organized resistance movement in the process. And dozens of Democrats were elected on promises to bring meaningful improvements to border security. Regardless of whether the threat of future Republican attacks motivated the decision, Tuesday’s vote will keep that promise.
And there is precedent for such a stance. Democrats in the pre-Trump era supported similar legislation to deport undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Former President Bill Clinton signed a bill mandating the deportation of noncitizens convicted of a long list of felonies, while President Barack Obama’s administration deported more than 2.5 million people through immigration orders. , the majority of whom had criminal records.
Other Democratic senators who joined Fetterman in expressing support for the bill, or at least moving it forward for consideration, include Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.); They include Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.). and newly elected Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). Kelly, Fetterman and Gallego are rumored to be future presidential candidates. Hickenlooper, Peters and Ossoff are seeking re-election in 2026.
A majority of the House Democratic caucus voted against the bill. However, the 48 people who voted in favor of the bill was an increase from the 37 who voted in favor when the bill was put to a vote last March. And possible Democratic support in the Senate means the bill could eventually become law.
The bill targets specific undocumented immigrants accused of specific crimes, and its narrow focus makes it more likely to attract Democratic votes. But eight years ago, it would have been unimaginable that so many Democrats would oppose a Republican-led immigration bill.
“Before, you couldn’t even get people to say anything about border security. And now you’re here: border security, border security. I think the political parties are slowly moving in that direction,” said South Texas. said Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who represents a border district in the state. “It is possible to support strong border security and still be respectful.”
Nicholas Wu and Daniella Diaz contributed to this report.
