Breaking with the leadership of his own party and the Biden administration, California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla helped lead an effort to defeat the bipartisan border security bill that failed to advance again Thursday.
In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, Padilla criticized the legislation as inadequate and encouraged his fellow senators to “do what's right for Dreamers, farmworkers and other long-time undocumented members of our communities.”
The comments were his strongest public rebuke yet of the first major immigration reform proposal in years to advance through Congress.
Padilla's vigorous opposition to the compromise is the latest example of his willingness to take an aggressive and principled position on an issue critical to his state. He was joined by most Republicans, who voted against the bill because they said it did not do enough to secure the border.
The bill included important security-enhancing measures, but lacked provisions for legalizing illegal immigrants in the country.
“So the Senate is going to vote on this package a second time, but there is still no vote on the DREAM Act?” he said. “It's hard to swallow.”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he sought Thursday's vote to make clear that Democrats want solutions at the border.
Senators voted 50-43 against the bill, which Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) negotiated for months beginning on last fall.
An earlier vote in February failed by 49 votes to 50, well short of the 60 votes needed to pass. Lankford and Sinema reversed their votes, opposing this time, as did Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah.
Padilla helped encourage his colleagues to go against the plan. An aide said he had private conversations with Democrats over the past few months and helped lead Sens. Cory Booker of New York and fellow Californian Laphonza Butler to also change their votes and oppose the bill.
In a statement after the vote, Butler echoed Padilla's own language, saying the bill “failed to provide comprehensive solutions for critical communities: DACA recipients, farmworkers, and long-term residents of the United States.”
“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 misses the mark,” he wrote.
The Senate bill would tighten asylum screening and speed up the process, as well as give presidents the power to immediately expel immigrants if arrivals exceed a certain daily threshold.
Immigration has been a central theme of Padilla's political identity. In his speech, he recalled that when he returned to his home in California after college “he found hate-filled television ads warning of an 'invasion' on our border.” The ads supported Proposition 187, the 1994 law that sought to deny health care, social services and education to immigrants suspected of lacking legal status..
Padilla said seeing public officials scapegoat and demonize families like his convinced him to join the subsequent movement to bring more Latinos into positions of power.
That hateful rhetoric is back, Padilla said. He pointed to former President Trump's statements (echoing Adolf Hitler's) that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country, and Republicans' statements that there is an “invasion” on the southern border.
Padilla said that is undeniably part of the context in which the border bill was drafted.
The senator's independent streak is significant because it comes during a critical election year in which Republicans have seized on the immigration issue, rallying against Democrats for what they see as soft border policies.
The bipartisan legislation was a critical piece 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 regain control of the House.
Padilla's decision to publicly oppose the president on this issue exemplifies a growing divide among Democrats on immigration.
The senator campaigned in 2022 on his desire to reform the immigration system and personally warned Biden in mid-December against joining the Republican Party.
In his speech Thursday, Padilla noted that the immigration proposal was originally intended as a concession to get Republicans to agree to send more aid to Ukraine.
“But guess what, Mr. President? We approve of foreign aid! he said. “And so I can’t help but ask: what is this concession for now?”
He also criticized executive actions on immigration that Biden will reportedly announce in the coming weeks, calling them “extreme.” Thursday's vote was widely seen as a precursor to those measures, which could include a provision that would allow the administration broadly block the entry of immigrants into the country.
Before the vote, Padilla warned his colleagues that history would judge them.
“We should be better than this,” he said.
