{"id":230431,"date":"2026-11-12T05:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T05:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/democrats-push-to-rein-in-trump-on-immigration-after-voter-backlash-to-ice-raids-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T05:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T05:27:14","slug":"democrats-push-to-rein-in-trump-on-immigration-after-voter-backlash-to-ice-raids-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/democrats-push-to-rein-in-trump-on-immigration-after-voter-backlash-to-ice-raids-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats push to rein in Trump on immigration after voter backlash to ICE raids – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of Congress seek to \u2018bring sanity\u2019 to system but decline to give details on plans to reform or abolish agency
A group of congressional Democrats on Wednesday pushed for immediate efforts to rein in the Trump administration\u2019s sweeping immigration enforcement operation and \u201cbring sanity\u201d to an immigration system that Donald Trump said, after his party\u2019s midterm drubbing<\/a>, had been \u201ctoo tough\u201d<\/a> in certain aspects.
Just over a week after the midterm elections<\/a> in which the US president\u2019s harsh crackdown on immigration fueled a voter backlash against Republicans, some sitting and newly elected Democrats gathered outside the US Capitol in Washington to advocate for a bipartisan approach to reforms \u2013 even as they gear up to take control of both legislative chambers next year.
\u201cI have very aspirational dreams and hopes for immigration reform. But I am also a pragmatist. And as we have \u2013 as we continue to have \u2013 Donald Trump in the White House, and without a supermajority in the Senate, we need Republican support. So any comprehensive immigration reform must be bipartisan,\u201d said congresswoman Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from Texas whose district includes El Paso on the US-Mexico border<\/a>.
The group\u2019s press conference included progressive as well as moderate Democrats<\/a> from the Senate and House, in a show of unity. Many attendees held signs saying \u201clegal pathways for long-term immigrants\u201d.
The one Republican lawmaker slated to attend, congresswoman Maria Salazar of Florida, who has taken jabs<\/a> at the president over immigration that are rare from his side of the aisle, did not appear.
\u201cThere is time still this session for a deal,\u201d said US senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona. \u201cWe should try to work, even if we can\u2019t get something this session, next session for a deal. We owe it to this country. We owe it to our friends.\u201d
He added: \u201cRepublicans have been saying we will have immigration reform as soon as we have a safe, secure border. We have that right now. We did the job. Now let\u2019s figure out how to right-size our immigration issue. Let\u2019s figure out how to keep families together.\u201d
The remarks followed Trump\u2019s aggressive mass deportation campaign and ruthless<\/a> moves that dramatically<\/a> slowed crossings at the border, beginning as soon as<\/a> he re-entered the White House in January 2025. His Democratic predecessor Joe Biden saw significantly elevated levels of migration at the border, and despite his at times harsh approach, the subject of migration became a high-risk political topic for Democrats, who gained a reputation as being too soft on the issue.
Since then, Trump\u2019s second term has also seen US citizens and immigrants killed by immigration enforcement agents, record numbers<\/a> of people held in often squalid detention conditions<\/a> and highly visible, violent tactics in the country\u2019s interior that led many voters to sour<\/a> on some of his policies or at least how they are carried out.
The president\u2019s mixed messages post-midterms included a tentative offer to make a deal<\/a> with Democrats to help longstanding and law-abiding undocumented immigrants in the US avoid his crackdown. But that contrasted sharply with his actions so far, and shortly after the comments were recorded for TV he named Stephen Miller<\/a> as his new chief of staff despite him being the architect<\/a> and orchestrator of Trump\u2019s most draconian, white nationalist immigration policies.
Trump has also signaled that he intends to use his presidential veto power<\/a> often to block Democratic-supported legislation if it passes Congress.
At the same time, experts expect a barrage of investigations and oversight hearings from Democrats next year in an effort to bring accountability.
But lawmakers on Wednesday said they did not want to wait that long to begin improving the immigration system, highlighting two existing bipartisan bills they believe could be a practical starting point. There was no detailed talk on Wednesday of how to abolish<\/a> or even significantly reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE<\/a>) despite it being a hot topic<\/a> during the election campaign<\/a>.
The first highlighted by the lawmakers who spoke on Wednesday, the American Dream and Promise Act<\/a>, focuses on providing legal pathways to a green card for undocumented immigrants brought stateside as children, colloquially known as \u201cDreamers\u201d, as well as people with temporary protections to remain in the US while their country of origin experiences serious turmoil.
Not only has Trump not offered such a path, his administration stopped recognizing many temporary legal statuses awarded<\/a> under past Democratic administrations and has been deporting or trying to deport many who have papers or long-term legal options.
Lawmakers on Wednesday pitched the proposed legislation as an opportunity to act even before the new Democratically-controlled Congress is sworn in come January, asking for Trump\u2019s help in getting it past the finish line.
\u201cWe all can agree that the immigration system is broken. But we can start today on a path to build a foundation with the Dream and Promise Act, and to move forward next year when we take over to make even more reforms,\u201d said representative Sylvia Garcia of Texas.
Separately, the Dignity Act<\/a> is the only bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced in over a decade, with 35 Democratic and 20 Republican sponsors. It couples<\/a> strict border security measures with some protections for undocumented people.
Salazar is the bill\u2019s lead sponsor. But Escobar, one of the Dignity Act\u2019s fiercest champions and its co-author, said that she and her colleagues planned to reshape it over the next few weeks before reintroducing it next legislative session.
\u201cIf we can get this passed this upcoming Congress, we can do even more in 2028 to grow and expand what we can do for immigrants, immigrant families, and our economy and our communities,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to bring sanity back to the immigration system. We can do this. We will do this.\u201d
Meanwhile, representative Henry Cuellar, another Texas border-area Democrat, expects<\/a> to chair the House appropriations homeland security subcommittee in the new year \u2013 and thus control the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s (DHS) funding.
He said he has a list of guardrails to revert ICE, which comes under<\/a> the DHS agency, to its role prior to Trump\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n

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Members of Congress seek to \u2018bring sanity\u2019 to system but decline to give details on plans to reform or abolish agencyA group of congressional Democrats on Wednesday pushed for immediate efforts to rein in the Trump administration\u2019s sweeping immigration enforcement operation and \u201cbring sanity\u201d to an immigration system that Donald Trump said, after his party\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}