And yet even a Republican who has been open to more liberal immigration policies is closing the door to that approach now that the party is attacking the President Joe Biden for not doing more to contain the crisis, meaning finding the 60 necessary votes in the fairly divided chamber that an immigration bill is will still be a frightening act.
“The world has changed in eight years – dramatically,” Florida Sen. said. Marco Rubio, a Republican architect on the 2013 bill, stopped that year in the GOP-led House.
When asked if he would return a complete effort now, Rubio said: “Not in a big bill, no. You have to do it in pieces.”
But doing it in pieces opens up a whole series of other problems.
The Republican Senate is calling for strict border security provisions and restrictions on asylum seekers to be included in such a proposal. But if Democrats agree to such an approach, it is incumbent on them to reinvigorate promoters – especially in the House.
“It’s going to be very easy to do something if this administration wants to control the borders, something they don’t want right now,” the Iowa Sen. said. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Adjudication Committee, when asked about moving piecemeal proposals.
“I have said for a long time: The right wants to upload 11 million people and get them out of the country or they are not going to vote for the bill, and the left is want to legalize, or grant citizenship to everyone yesterday. , “Grassley said.” And you can’t get 60 or 70 votes when you have that. ”
Rift among Democrats
“I think we’re a lot more likely to deal with individual elements,” Durbin said.
Some Democrats rejected these views.
“I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat in New York, said Tuesday night when asked how the foundation would react if the Democrats did not push through a plan with a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, a Democrat in New Mexico, said: “I do not believe that any of us should abandon a move forward in an attempt to gain more support for a comprehensive immigration reform. . … I will not give in to progress on a complete immigration reform. ”
And even seniors who are up for re-election are sticking to that approach.
“We need to do deep, far-reaching immigration reform,” Sen said. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona who has spoken to Biden about the humanitarian situation at the border. When asked if he sees the situation at the border as an emergency, which the White House has denied, the swing-state Democrat said: “Yeah. I mean it it’s a very challenging situation. ”
But some of the best Democrats seem to be in favor of White House astronomy.
“I wouldn’t say it’s an emergency,” Durbin said. “But it’s definitely a challenge.”
Some Democrats are keeping an eye on the budget process to advance a party-line vote on immigration
Senate Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, has said he would use the arbitration process for immigration legislation – and ultimately that call would be up to the Head of Visiting Senate Chuck Schumer.
“To reconcile you have to have every Democratic vote. We had yet to have those talks to see if we would have every Democratic vote on that,” Sen said. Tim Kaine, Democrat from Virginia.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, said instead of reconciliation, he wants his party to “get back to regular order.” “You can’t just assume that everyone is against all just because this place has become so full of (.) tribalism. Someone has to try to put it back in its place. ”
On Tuesday, Schumer would not refuse to go for a complete bill, telling reporters: “My strongest desire is to pass a complete immigration reform.” He said “we will do everything we can to explore that area.”
For many Democrats who have spent years trying to craft complete immigration accounts, the political reality is that many of their Republican colleagues were willing to vote or vote on a broad immigration reform deal. for away – or unwilling to come back to the table
“I think what Sen. Durbin had in mind was to try to put together pieces of immigration reform. It seems like a more reasonable way to go,” Sen. said. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat. “Republicans have always been in awe of their own shadow when it comes to immigration reform.”
Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said: “Sometimes you have to start with a small bipartisan proposal and see what else you can build for it.”
In the House, Democratic leaders plan to vote later in the week on two bills aimed at giving recipients under the Action program a path to citizenship and a rural agricultural workers’ program. who was put off for youth. The bills passed the House in the last Congress and are expected to pass again, but even those bipartisan measures are against climbing uphill in the Senate.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and author of the 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill, told CNN that now is not the time for legislation to legalize DACA program recipients.
“I all want to pay attention to the Dreamers, but you don’t want to pay attention to them and at the same time encourage another way of legal immigration so the window is not right now to open anything. To make that flow go, the border needs to be controlled, “said Graham.
Another Republican says any attempt to legalize Dreamers or extend visas for farm workers must come with strong border security provisions, which could deter developers from support a final contract.
“I think there are a number of us who are willing to work on immigration bills, but it needs to be very focused and see some of the audit practices that we want to see,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, Republican from Iowa.
This story was updated with additional details on Tuesday.
Sarah Fortinsky from CNN and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.