After their midterm win and Stephen Miller’s promotion, Democrats gear up for a fight on immigration

To watch. Likely chaos:

…Immigration and Latino activists lambasted Miller’s promotion, calling it an act of defiance after voters spoke clearly at the polls and a sign the president would continue his immigration policies. California’s Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, who’s been a key critic of Trump’s immigration agenda, said Trump was choosing to double down by picking Miller and vowed, “So will we.”

It’s unclear if Democrats and the White House will find a middle ground to successfully pass immigration legislation. With Trump in office for another two years, he can veto any Democratic legislation, and Republicans have the money and the personnel to pursue Trump’s immigration agenda regardless of Tuesday’s results.

Republicans during the summer of 2025 supercharged immigration enforcement with $150 billion intended to expand immigration detention capacity, finish the border wall and hire thousands more deportation officers. Earlier this year they frontloaded routine funding for ICE and Border Patrol for the next three years.

“My fear is that enforcement will get worse. And the country will also see that Congress does not have many tools to stop the executive branch because the executive branch power on immigration has grown so vast,” said Andrea Flores, who was a policy adviser in the Obama and Biden administrations.

Conservatives want action from lame duck Congress

Many administration supporters want this current Congress — in the little time it has left — to pass laws solidifying the gains the Trump administration says it has made on border security and immigration. Without codifying changes to asylum law or tightening requirements on employers to verify workers’ immigration status, they warn, a different administration could quickly reverse the new immigration landscape Trump has shaped.

NumbersUSA, an advocacy group that seeks to restrict immigration, has a timer on its website counting down the days until this Congress is over with a warning to “make border security permanent.”…

Source: After their midterm win and Stephen Miller’s promotion, Democrats gear up for a fight on immigration