“I do not see a way to achieve that,” Durbin, the Senate majority whip, told CNN when asked about the path to citizenship. “I want it. I think we are much more likely to deal with discrete elements.”
Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, has indicated that Congress is more likely to enact specific pieces of immigration policy, rather than a comprehensive immigration bill that advocates have been trying to introduce for more than a decade. Durbin pointed to House President Nancy Pelosi’s decision to move on two specific pieces this week – a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, known as Dreamers, as well as legal protection for farm workers – as a clear indication of where this Congress is headed.
“I think Speaker Pelosi has discovered that she has no support for the comprehensive bill in the House,” Durbin said. “And that indicates where it is in the Senate as well.”
Durbin said he believes the Senate Judiciary Commission will not respond to legislation in early April.
After the two bills passed the House, Durbin said, “I need to sit down with my colleagues to see if there is a dual consensus to set the two as points of departure.”
Yet Pelosi still wants to promote a comprehensive bill – even though it has little chance in the Senate. And in a clear sign of the challenges the Democrats are facing, sen says. Lindsey Graham, a senior member of the GOP in the Senate Legal Affairs Committee, who helped make a dual immigration agreement passed by the Senate in 2013, is not the time to do so, given the situation at the border.
“We’re not going to do a comprehensive immigration bill,” Graham, a Republican in South Carolina, told CNN. “I just do not see the politics of it. It is too out of control.”
Graham, who was formerly friendly with Biden but has now linked himself to former President Donald Trump, said Biden had not called him since taking office. Asked why he still spoke to the president, Graham said: ‘He’s a busy man. No hurry. ‘
Others like Senator Joe Manchin caught Biden’s attention. Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who supported the 2013 bill, says he will do it again. But he also said the situation at the border was a ‘crisis’, going beyond the White House, and said he would wait to be briefed before assessing the government’s response.
“Whatever message was sent, it must have been misinterpreted,” Manchin said. “It’s a crisis – oh, it’s a crisis.”
Under the Trump administration, border officials turned away migrants, including children, after instituting a public health order related to the pandemic. While the Biden government continues to rely largely on policies for adults and families, the government has taken the position that it will enable children to come to the U.S. alone, leading to more children in federal supervision.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn, Texas, said Monday the crisis at the southern border is making it difficult to find dual consensus in Congress on the necessary changes to immigration laws, including the adoption of legislation to help those who are recipients of the program Deferred action for childhood.
“I’m on record and say I want to find a permanent solution for the DACA recipients,” Cornyn told reporters. “The problems are every time we try to meet the Democrats halfway, they move the goalposts.”
He points to the situation at the border.
“Unless there is some way to bring some control and order into that situation, I think it makes it very difficult to do other things on a dual basis,” Cornyn said. “This is one of the victims of failure to think ahead of time. If you’re going to reverse Trump policy, what’s your plan? Well, they did not have a plan. Other than to say, ‘Do not come now.’ not “if all the other signals are, you know,” come in. If you can come here, you will stay. “
“This is a big problem,” he added.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
CNN’s Ted Barrett and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.