In the lead-up to the 2024 election, Democrats made a conscious effort to move to the right on border security. But among voters who said immigration was their top issue, Democrats still lost horribly.
Now, as the party looks to regroup after their election losses, Democrats in Congress are split on the lesson — with some lawmakers thinking the party needs to get even tougher on the issue.
“We have to reject the notion that border security is a Republican position,” Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres told NOTUS. “Democrats should be committed to the security of the border. The public demands border security. And we have to embrace that as part of our platform.”
“I would rather have center-left Democrats find the image of the party so that we can win elections,” Torres added.
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That’s practically been a mantra for Sen. John Fetterman on every issue, but he emphasized to NOTUS that it was particularly true on immigration and border security, stressing that the two priorities need to go hand in hand.
“I’m very pro-immigration, my wife was a former ‘Dreamer,’ but we’ve always needed a secure border, and it got out of control,” Fetterman said. “It’s appropriate to address that and make sure we have a secured border.”
“These are two things that are true at the same time, and if that’s controversial for someone in my party, I don’t understand that,” Fetterman added.
For Sen. Jon Tester, who lost reelection this year, it’s not controversial at all that Democrats and President Joe Biden needed to do better on the border.
“He should have sealed up the border long before the effort was made six or eight months ago,” Tester told NOTUS. “That’s pretty obvious.”
“The lesson is to secure the borders,” Tester said. “We need to know who’s coming into this country, regardless of where they come from in the world.”
For many Democrats, cracking down on border security was a key priority this year after a steady influx of immigrants at the border brought the issue to the forefront. At the beginning of this year, Democrats worked with Republicans on a border security bill and were willing to pass legislation to, at least partially, take the issue off the table for the election.
But Republicans balked, with many GOP lawmakers — including Donald Trump — admitting they didn’t want to give Biden or Democrats a win on the border.
For years, Democrats insisted that new border security measures should be paired with immigration reforms like a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country. No part of a pathway to citizenship was even remotely part of the border security discussion this year.
But as the Republican Party has tacked to the right on immigration and border security, Democrats have moved right, too — so much so that even Democrats in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are acknowledging problems at the border.
“We saw that the process became very chaotic,” Rep. Salud Carbajal said of the asylum process. Carbajal said that while Biden tried to improve the policies through executive action, the administration’s efforts fell short.
“We saw what happens when we have a broken immigration system and people want to come to this country,” Carbajal said. “It’s important to keep the asylum system in place, but one that works, not that invites chaos.”
Biden’s asylum policies have been a common target for Republicans. But increasingly, as Democrats looked to distance themselves from the president, they became a target for Democrats — much like border security.
“We can focus and we should be talking about making sure that our borders are secure because absolutely everybody wants a safe community,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, another CHC member, told NOTUS.
“I had just been down to the southern border, meeting with Border Patrol in the Tucson sector, and they absolutely needed more resources,” she said. “They were overwhelmed and understaffed. And it’s not just dealing with the immigration lines that were there, but it’s also making sure that they are stopping the fentanyl coming into our communities.”
Cortez Masto added that Democrats could talk about border security and could also talk about “fixing a broken immigration system.”
“There are two different things, and they’re not mutually exclusive,” she told NOTUS.
There are, of course, some CHC members who are more resistant to discuss border security, particularly in the absence of a discussion about a pathway to citizenship.
Reps. Delia Ramirez and Chuy Garcia both told NOTUS they remain skeptical that adopting a harder line on immigration would be a productive path for Democrats.
Other Democrats had similar messages.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren suggested that Democrats needed to get back to discussing border security in conjunction with a pathway to citizenship.
“We need four parts to a comprehensive immigration reform package,” Warren told NOTUS. “More border security, money states that are currently housing migrants, faster work permits so people who are here can support themselves and a pathway to citizenship.”
Warren also warned about Democrats negotiating against themselves.
“Once we dig into the details, there are places where we can come together and compromise, but we don’t have a partner on the other side,” she said. “Republicans are not looking to make a deal. They made that clear. They’re looking to play politics.”
Sen. Ben Cardin also suggested he wanted to get back to discussing a pathway to citizenship. “We need to have pathways to be able to have for people to come here, but in an orderly way, lawful way and not jumping in front of a line,” he said.
But he also underscored that the “common thread” with immigration was order — for those seeking asylum, for those seeking worker visas and for those seeking family reunification.
For immigrants experiencing those challenges, Democrats have traditionally seemed like the party most aligned with immigrant issues. And yet, increasingly, Latino voters are moving to Republicans — particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border. The transformation was particularly pronounced in South Texas.
For Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who will join the Senate in January, the questions about whether Democrats need to lean more or less to the right on immigration and border security misses what’s actually happening. She told NOTUS that part of the problem was the Democratic Party’s focus on identity politics.
“The idea of identity politics is really on its way out,” Slotkin said. “I believe that we can no longer just assume any category of voters — Latino, African American, white — are just going to vote the way they have traditionally voted.”
“I don’t think it’s very complicated,” she added. “I think every country in the world gets to control its borders, but we are a nation of immigrants and we need immigrants — legal, vetted immigrants — in order to thrive as a country.”
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Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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