Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., called out the Democratic Party in an interview on Thursday for being "scared" to offend immigration groups as they navigate the issue.
"The Republicans are fomenting anti-immigrant hate as a policy and a strategy, and Democrats are so scared of offending either immigration groups or people to the left of them — maybe they’re in a primary, they are concerned about saying: ‘No, not everyone gets to be here. Not everyone has the right to live in the United States, and we, like every other country in the world, get to know who and what is coming across our borders,’" Slotkin told The New York Times in an interview.
Slotkin argued that most Americans agree that immigrants are integral to the American economy, but they want immigrants to come here legally and through "vetted channels."
"That kind of clamping down with rules tends to make a lot of my Democratic colleagues really nervous," she added.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., rehearses the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025, in Wyandotte, Michigan. (Photo by Paul Sancya - Pool/Getty Images)
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SUES LOS ANGELES OVER SANCTUARY POLICIES THAT 'IMPEDE' ICE OPERATIONS
"There’s been a lot of ink spilled about advocacy groups that don’t seem to represent a lot of voters. We saw that in real time in this last election, when no one had a bigger swing toward Trump than Latinos. Some of these groups were trotting around Washington saying they represent the immigrant community, and they clearly did not," Slotkin said.
Slotkin also said she thought Democrats had lost their "alpha-energy."
The Michigan senator said "alpha-energy" was about emotion.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., speaks on stage during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 22, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
"We respond to people’s pain with a long list of wonky policies," Slotkin continued. "Alpha energy is synonymous with being bold. Call the tough play, take a risk, be bold. And don’t be so damn scared of your own shadow."
Slotkin delivered the official response to President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress in March.
She criticized Trump's foreign policy and called for "responsible" ways to make changes to the government.
President Donald Trump gestures as he boards Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Sunday, July 6, 2025, en route to Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
"We all want an end to the war in Ukraine, but Reagan understood that true strength required America to combine our military and economic might with moral clarity," Slotkin said after Trump's address. "As a Cold War kid, I’m thankful it was Reagan and not Trump in office in the 1980s. Trump would have lost us the Cold War."