Scoop: Senate's "secret" talks
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Speaking of bipartisan deals: A small group of senators have been quietly sketching out a possible new border deal for early 2025, we have learned.
- Why it matters: Border and immigration reform is the white whale of Congress. It's also President-elect Trump's No. 1 priority.
⚡️ At least two Trump-state Democrats have been involved in the conversations, which Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) described as "very" serious and the details "very secret."
- Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is one of them: "If there's willingness to work in a bipartisan way to do some stuff, not only on border security, but on immigration reform, I think it would be great."
- Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who is up for re-election next cycle, told us of the bipartisan border talks: "We're gonna be certainly engaged in efforts to make that happen."
- Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said: "There are all kinds of conversations — and I hope to be a part of them as they continue — aiming at comprehensive immigration reform."
Zoom in: "If we can do border separately — without reconciliation — then [Trump's] okay with" one reconciliation package, Mullin, a key link between Trump, the Senate and the House, told us.
- Reconciliation could allow Senate Republicans to pass budget-related border measures with just 50 votes, rather than having to meet the 60-vote filibuster threshold. But there are limits on what they could do.
The bottom line: Trump may have further made an opening by suggesting he would be willing to provide protections for DACA recipients — people who illegally entered the country as children.
- "We have to do something about the Dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age," Trump said in an interview earlier this month.
— Stef Kight and Stephen Neukam
