Top Democrats admit 'failure,' fecklessness on border in scathing NY Times report

Some leading Democrats are acknowledging that their party has failed when it comes to border security and messaging, according to a new report on Sunday from the New York Times.

"When you have the most Latino district in the country outside of Puerto Rico vote for Trump, that should be a wake-up call for the Democratic Party," said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas.

The report highlighted that Gonzalez witnessed President Donald Trump "win every county in his district along the border with Mexico." Gonzalez's 34th district in Texas has swung dramatically from voting heavily Democratic in recent presidential elections to going in favor of Trump in 2024.

"This is a Democratic district that’s been blue for over a century," Gonzalez told the Times.

'CHAOS,' 'UNACCEPTABLE': FETTERMAN RIPS DEMOCRATIC HANDLING OF BORDER IN BIPARTISAN DISCUSSION

Some leading Democrats, including Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., have acknowledged that their party has failed when it comes to border security, according to a new report in the New York Times.   (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Trump's 2024 victory and subsequent crackdown on illegal immigration has alarmed his critics while delivering on a clear pledge during his successful campaign, and Democrats are left wondering how they got here.

The piece opened by highlighting a viral moment from a 2020 Democratic primary debate, when nearly every candidate on the stage raised their hand in support of decriminalizing illegal border crossings.

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said the Democratic Party "got led astray by the 2016 and the 2020 elections, and we just never moved back." 

"We looked feckless, we weren’t decisive, we weren’t listening to voters, and the voters decided that we weren’t in the right when it comes to what was happening with the border," Gallego told the Times. 

In May, Gallego released a border security plan that would speed up asylum seekers' claims and make other countries do their "fair share" in receiving asylum seekers, as well as take action against cartel violence.

DEM'S IMMIGRATION REFORM PLAN ADDS BORDER PATROL AGENTS, OFFERS SELECT MIGRANTS PATHWAY TO CITIZENSHIP

 In May, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., released a border security plan that would speed up asylum seekers' claims and make other countries do their "fair share" in receiving asylum seekers, as well as take action against cartel violence.   ( Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The New York Times reported that various Democrats "are pushing for a course correction they see as overdue," noting a new proposal from the Democratic policy shop and left-wing think tank Center for American Progress. The organization is calling for expanding legal immigration but also for ramping up border security and clamping down on abuse of the nation's asylum system, the latter two of which are longtime Republican priorities.

Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, admitted to the Times that Democrats will have to adopt some level of border security policy.

"I’m happy to argue with Stephen Miller or anyone else about why they are wrong," Tanden told the New York Times. "But the way we’re going to be able to do that is to also honestly assess that the border has been too insecure, that it allowed too many people to come through and that we need to fix that."

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Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, said she "first realized Democrats were in trouble in December 2022," when illegal immigrants flooded into El Paso. (Photo by Mandel Ngan-Pool/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Cecilia Muñoz, former director of the Domestic Policy Council under then-President Barack Obama said, "We, and I include myself in this, created a vacuum on this issue that we allowed the current president to fill."

Muñoz added that "the country is now living with the results. And the results are appalling."

The Times reported that Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, "first realized Democrats were in trouble in December 2022," when illegal immigrants flooded into El Paso. 

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"Living through what El Paso lived through, feeling how unsustainable all of this was, and frankly how challenging this was, I knew this would cause a massive shift in the perspective of Americans about immigration," Escobar said. "There was a failure on the part of the Democratic Party altogether during the last administration in adequately recognizing what was happening."