WASHINGTON—A group of 13 U.S. Senators in the Democratic Party have indicated their willingness to support forthcoming Republican-sponsored bills on border security and immigration, which is a top priority for President Donald Trump.
The enactment of measures to increase border security and enforce immigration laws, specifically the removal of illegal immigrants in the United States, was the principal argument of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Before taking office, Trump had begun discussions with Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress about legislation to carry out his agenda.
Tentatively, Republicans plan to use the “budget reconciliation” process to enact border security measures, which would enable their passage without invoking cloture in the Senate to overcome a filibuster that would need 60 votes.
On Jan. 22, 13 Democratic senators wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) suggesting they will collaborate with Republicans on developing bipartisan border security legislation. Their support for any final bill could obviate the need for reconciliation—which has restrictions on the scope and duration of provisions—and instead, enable permanent reforms.
“There is a lot of common ground for us to start on. We see the need for strong, commonsense, and fair immigration enforcement accompanied by the necessary resources to secure our borders,” wrote the Democratic senators. “[F]inding bipartisan solutions to our outdated immigration system are too important to ignore in the 119th Congress,” they said, noting the limitations of the budget reconciliation process.
A reconciliation bill’s provisions must be germane to taxation, spending, or public borrowing, and its fiscal effects cannot last longer than 10 years. Hence, some of Trump’s proposals, such as the construction of a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico, could be included; other proposals regarding immigration policy, such as a reform of asylum and refugee laws, may not. Any change to the reconciliation process would require amending the Senate’s rules, which Republicans and Democrats have long been loath to do.
By contrast, a bill passed using regular processes could enact permanent reforms and funding for projects longer than 10 years in duration, though such a process would require bipartisan support for at least 60 votes in favor.
The letter’s lead signatory was Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who represents a state that Trump won in the 2024 election by over 5 percentage points, his largest margin of victory in a battleground state. Other signatory senators from states that Trump won in 2024 were Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Kelly’s colleague Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.).
The letter was also signed by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Margaret “Maggie” Hassan (D-N.H.)—both from New Hampshire, which Trump lost by the narrowest margin nationwide, in terms of raw votes—as well as Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Angus King (I-Maine).
Historically, Democrats in both houses of Congress have strongly opposed the immigration actions proposed by Trump. During his first term, Democrats in the Senate declined to support an appropriations bill in 2018 that would have allocated $5 billion to construct a new border wall, which denied it 60 votes in the Senate. The impasse led to a government shutdown, which ran for 35 days—the longest in U.S. history.
The majority leader’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
