Sen. Cory Booker announced Tuesday that he will reverse himself and vote against President Biden’s border bill, complicating fellow Democrats’ hopes of an election-year messaging triumph.
Mr. Booker voted for the same border plan when it was part of the Ukraine and Israel war-funding bill in February. At the time he expressed some concerns about the border provisions but said he supported the process.
Now, he says the border provisions are too much.
“I will not vote for the bill coming to the Senate floor this week because it includes several provisions that will violate Americans’ shared values,” he said in a statement.
He said it was too tough in rewriting asylum standards, which would shut some illegal immigrants out of a chance to claim protections, and said the measure didn’t include a legalization of current illegal immigrants.
His opposition deepens the hole for Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, who plans to hold a re-vote on Thursday and was hoping to create a contrast between Democrats who backed a bipartisan solution and Republicans who largely oppose it.
Negotiated by one Republican, one Democrat and one Democrat-leaning independent, the bill would give the president new powers to expel illegal immigrants if border crossings exceeded a certain threshold. It also tightened asylum rules to block bogus claims and increased detention space to hold some of the border crossers.
The bill’s authors said each side had to accept compromises.
The bill has the backing of Mr. Biden and Mr. Schumer has called the bill bipartisan, but the opposition is bipartisan also.
When the proposal first came to the Senate floor as part of the war-funding bill it was filibustered, five Democrats joined with nearly all Republicans in opposition — though for opposite reasons.
The Republicans said the bill was too weak in allowing Mr. Biden to continue to use “parole” powers to catch and release hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.
Democratic opponents, meanwhile, echoed Mr. Booker’s current stance, saying the bill cracked down too strongly on immigrants.
That exposed the tricky politics of immigration, where a durable center position hasn’t existed on Capitol Hill for two decades.
Ahead of this week’s re-vote, immigrant-rights activists have been pleading with Democrats to oppose Mr. Biden’s plan.
United We Dream Action, one activist group, called it a “hateful bill.”
“Democrats should be working to create a country that welcomes newcomers with dignity, protects migrants who’ve called the United States home for decades, and actually invests in what helps people live and thrive,” the group said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.