Senate Democrats seek to regain immigration removal power amid Trump fears

Democratic senators are trying to impose limits on the use of executive power over immigration policy during ongoing negotiations on a border security package, NBC News reported.

Senators are negotiating new border security measures in exchange for approved aid to Ukraine, NBC reported. Some Democrats are trying to include provisions in the bill that would prevent a new administration, such as former President Donald Trump if elected, from imposing hardline immigration restrictions.

“What Donald Trump could do with it, and what he would do with it, is very different,” an unnamed Democratic source told NBC. “And that's clearly on people's minds as they're drafting.”

“None of this is being drafted in a vacuum,” the source continued.

Democratic Rep. Joaquín Castro says passing border security measures would be 'giving in to right-wing racism' pic.twitter.com/M1jqdhZWtq

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 17, 2023

Trump is currently leading President Joe Biden main candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, a the main polls through various swing states.

Democrats are open to giving the removal operations division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement the power to remove illegal immigrants from the country who are apprehended shortly after crossing the border, NBC reported . However, they oppose any expedited powers for domestic U.S. removal operations to remove illegal immigrants who have already been in the country, in some cases for years, and are spouses of U.S. citizens.

“Expanded accelerated removal across the country is an incredibly dangerous tool that, if voluntarily surrendered in these negotiations, could easily be abused by a future Trump administration to target political opponents and critics,” he told NBC on Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California.

“[Trump and his team] have explicitly stated that expedited removal at the national level is absolutely critical if they are to continue their horrific efforts to arrest and deport millions and millions of immigrants,” said Todd Schute, president of FWD.us, a U.S. immigration watchdog. immigration, on NBC News.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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