Feinstein in heated duel on border
For months, Los Angeles state Sen. Kevin de León has been using the immigration issue to hammer on Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the fellow Democrat he will challenge in November.
From saying in a Sacramento Bee interview that Feinstein’s “natural inclination is to be anti-immigrant” to arguing at February’s state Democratic convention that Californians need a leader who will “fight each and every day to protect ... our immigrant families,” de León — author of California’s sanctuary state law — has banked on a hope that his long record of vocal support for immigrants and immigration would translate to support at the polls.
It didn’t work well in the primary, as de León finished more than 30 points behind Feinstein. It could also be a tough sell in November, now
that the four-term senator has become the face of Democratic congressional opposition to the Trump administration policy of separating undocumented children from their parents when the families are caught trying to enter the country.
Feinstein’s “Keep Families Together Act” has become Senate Democrats’ primary vehicle to confront both President Trump and the GOP on family separation, which a new CNN poll found is overwhelmingly opposed by everyone except registered Republicans.
“We have 48 Democratic senators in support of our straightforward bill to bar family separation,” Feinstein said in a statement Tuesday, before the 49th, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, announced his support. “I’ve heard countless Republicans say that they oppose children being taken from their parents. If that’s true, they should support our bill.”
Federal authorities are holding an estimated 2,000 migrant children after jailing their parents when they tried to cross the border. The federal government used to release migrants with children until their deportation cases were heard, but the Trump administration decreed a “zero tolerance” policy in April under which all undocumented adults apprehended trying to enter the U.S. are detained.
Feinstein’s measure would bar the government from separating families at the border in almost every case. The only exceptions would be when there was evidence that a child was being abused or trafficked by his or her parents. Even then, that decision would have to be made by a state court or a county welfare agency, not the federal government.
Although the bill has the support of 49 Democrats, it’s backed by zero Republicans, with even GOP moderates like Maine Sen. Susan Collins complaining in an interview with CBS that the bill “is far too broad.”
That’s almost beside the point for Feinstein and the Democrats, who now have something to point to when Trump and Republicans demand to know what alternative they have to the administration’s policy.
The measure, and the publicity it brings with it, is likely to be a political winner for Feinstein in California. It puts the former San Francisco mayor front and center in a nationally visible confrontation with Trump, something de León has charged she has been unwilling to do.
Although she heads into the fall campaign as the prohibitive favorite over de León, no one gets as far up the political ladder as Feinstein without a strong competitive streak. While 50 percent plus one is enough to win re-election, that’s certainly not the number Feinstein wants.
De León also got involved in the child migrant issue this week, calling on Gov. Jerry Brown to pull 400 California National Guard troops from border duty. Expect to see Feinstein and her supporters pushing back hard against any charge that she’s soft on Trump, in an effort to show de León’s progressive supporters that there’s no reason to switch Democrats in November.
That’s why it’s no accident Feinstein’s campaign — and not her Senate office — paid for a new email message asking Democrats to add their names to a list supporting the senator’s opposition to Trump’s family separation program.
“We can’t allow this to happen. Not in our America,” the message says. “Dianne will continue to fight for these children every day.”