Fetterman To Fellow Democrats: Get Serious On Border
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has been surprisingly candid in recent days as he continues to recover from the stroke that significantly affected him during last year’s campaign and much of his first year in the Senate. The junior Pennsylvania senator has now entered the conversation around border security with a surprisingly pragmatic take from a progressive Democrat.
Amid the historically unprecedented surge in illegal immigration at America’s southern border, Fetterman is urging his Democratic colleagues to enter serious negotiations about national security with the Republican opposition.
In an interview this week with Politico, Fetterman said, “I hope Democrats can understand that it isn’t xenophobic to be concerned about the border.” Migrant encounters at the southern border hit almost 270,000 in just the last month. “Honestly, it’s astonishing. And this isn’t a Fox News kind of statistic. This is the government’s,” Fetterman added.
Is John Fetterman a conservative? He's breaking from Democrats to promote border security. pic.twitter.com/1X1CqCTudR
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 8, 2023
Fetterman has typically taken a pro-immigration stance, although now he is taking on the problems that arise when orderly, legal immigration gives way to the lawlessness currently plaguing the border. He told Politico: “I haven’t met anyone that can have a really crisp, cogent solution or easy solution on, ‘Well, what do you do when you have roughly a city similar in size of Pittsburgh coming up to the border?’”
Attempts at bipartisan negotiations have been challenging, with Democrats and Republicans holding fundamentally different views on border security and immigration reform. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) noted the urgent need for the parties to work together, saying, “We cannot work to secure other nations while our own border remains a massive national security risk.”
During the interview, Fetterman made it clear that his demand for action on security does not affect his intention to continue his support of the “Dreamers,” who are now adults brought into the country illegally when they were children. Instead, he seems to suggest some level of aggressive enforcement to stop the flood of unvetted and unknown migrants from around the globe, including many nations directly hostile to the U.S.
Even the measured and moderate approach to border security expressed by Fetterman sets him apart from most of his progressive Democratic colleagues. His openness about the nature of the crisis could mark a critical moment in the ongoing debate about the situation and any remaining chances for cooperation between the parties.