California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla broke with his own party’s leadership and the Biden administration and helped lead an effort to defeat the bipartisan border security bill, which again failed to make progress Thursday.
In a passionate speech at the Senate, Padilla criticized the legislation as inadequate and encouraged his fellow senators to “do what is right for Dreamers, farmworkers and other long-term undocumented members of our communities.”
The comments were his strongest public rebuke yet of the first major immigration reform proposal to make progress in Congress in years.
Padilla’s strong opposition to the compromise is the latest example of his willingness to take an aggressive position on principle on an issue of crucial importance to his state. He was joined by most Republicans, who voted against the bill, saying it did not do enough to secure the border.
The bill contained important provisions to increase security, but none to help change the status of immigrants in the country illegally.
“So the Senate is voting on this package for the second time, but still no vote on the DREAM Act?” he said. “It’s hard to swallow.”
Read more: Senate Republicans are blocking a bipartisan border package, destroying the deal they demanded from Democrats
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he was looking for a vote Thursday to make clear that Democrats want solutions to the border issue.
Senators voted 50 to 43 against the bill, which Sens. James Lanford (R-Okla.), Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) had been negotiating for months starting last fall.
An earlier vote in February failed by a vote of 49 to 50, well below the 60 votes needed to pass. Lankford and Sinema reversed their votes against the measure, as did Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah.
Padilla played a role in encouraging his colleagues to oppose the plan. An aide said the senator had held private conversations with Democrats in recent months and had helped lead New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and fellow Republican Laphonza Butler to switch their votes and oppose the bill.
In a statement after the vote, Butler echoed Padilla’s language, saying the bill “failed to provide comprehensive solutions for critical communities — DACA recipients, farmworkers, and long-term U.S. residents.”
“While there are elements of this bill that I support, including funding for our border communities and efforts to prevent the flow of fentanyl, this measure simply defeats the purpose,” she wrote.
The Senate bill would tighten asylum screening and speed up the process, and allow presidents to immediately expel migrants if arrivals exceed a certain daily threshold.
Immigration has been a core issue of Padilla’s political identity. In his speech, he recalled returning home to California from college “to find hateful TV ads warning of an ‘invasion’ at our border.” The ads were in support of Proposition 187, the 1994 law aimed at denying medical care, social services and education to immigrants suspected of not having legal status..
Padilla said seeing officials scapegoat and demonize families like his convinced him to join a subsequent movement to put more Latinos in positions of power.
That hateful rhetoric is back, Padilla said. He pointed to former President Trump’s statement: following that of Adolf Hitler – that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country, and Republicans’ declarations that there is an “invasion” at the southern border.
Padilla said such claims are undeniably part of the context in which the border law was written.
The senator’s independent streak is significant, coming in a crucial election year when Republicans have seized on the immigration issue and pushed back against Democrats for what they see as soft border policies.
Read more: California Senator Padilla splits with Biden over proposed immigration and foreign aid package
The bipartisan legislation was a fundamental part of the Biden administration’s shift toward more conservative immigration policies — an effort to help Democrats in vulnerable seats maintain control of the Senate and win back the House.
Padilla’s public opposition to the president on the issue reflects a growing divide among Democrats.
The senator campaigned in 2022 on his desire to reform the immigration system, and personally warned Biden in mid-December not to side with the Republican party.
In his speech Thursday, Padilla pointed out that the immigration proposal was originally intended as a concession to get Republicans to send more aid to Ukraine.
“But guess what, Mr. President? We passed the foreign aid!” he said. “And so I have no choice but to ask: what is this concession for?”
He also criticized the executive actions on immigration that Biden reportedly plans to announce in the coming weeks, calling them “extreme.” Thursday’s vote was widely seen as a prelude to these measures, which could include a provision allowing the government to largely prevent migrants from entering the country.
Before the vote, Padilla warned colleagues that history would judge them.
“We should be better than this,” he said.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
