while most attention has been focused on the White House and competing immigration bills in the House, senators began meeting this week to talk about their own immigration bill. But as WKSU’s M.L. Schultze reports, there are big questions on whether enough Democrats would go along.
The Hill newspaper is reporting that a group of Democratic and Republican senators met Wednesday afternoon to lay out the guidelines for a compromise bill. It includes a focus on keeping families together when they’re stopped at the southern border.
But GOP Sen. Ted Cruz raised the question of whether Democrats would block any bill because they think the issue serves their chances in this fall’s election. Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, says its Republicans who have blocked reform.
It was actually the public that stood up with Democrats finally joined by some Republicans to say no to this separation and breaking up of families, and the damage that does to small children. And Democrats, working with Republicans, have had a bipartisan immigration bill a number of times in the last half a decade. And it’s always Republicans that walk away from the table.”
President Trump reversed his policy of separating families by executive order, but both Democratic and Republican senators say that need to be written into law.
