Tamara Keith, National Public Radio:
So I was up in New Hampshire a couple of weeks ago talking to voters, mostly independent voters and Democrats, and you know what they kept bringing up unprompted? Twelve thousand people apprehended at the U.S. border, a record-setting day.
And the fact that independent and Democratic voters were bringing this up indicates what a challenge this is for President Biden and Democrats going into 2024. Immigration is going to be the thing, whether Donald Trump is the nominee or somebody else, immigration is going to be the thing that they bludgeon the president and his party with.
And, in fact, there are Democratic governors and mayors in states very far from the border saying, hey, this is an issue, this is a problem, we need to deal with it. So, if, by some chance, and it is not a huge chance, they could come up with some sort of border security agreement that has some policy changes in it, it's a problem for Biden with a key part of his base.
It is a problem with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and with immigrant advocates and a lot of other people. But it also potentially creates a shield for him to say, look, I got a bipartisan deal. I worked with Republicans on this issue.
Now, are Republicans going to give them a break and say, oh, that's enough, it's problem solved, we own this? No, of course not. So both parties in some ways have, for more than a generation, had an interest in this as an issue continuing to be out there as an issue as a motivator for voters. And that is one of the many challenges that stands between getting this done and not getting this done.
The other thing is, Republicans see this as border security. They want to limit immigration. And they aren't even talking about things like addressing dreamers, which have bipartisan support. And so this is not comprehensive immigration reform that they're talking about. Republicans don't even see it as immigration reform.
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