Senators fight partisan headwinds in pursuit of immigration deal

When Sen. Thom Tillis returned to Washington this month from a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border with a bipartisan group of eight senators, the North Carolina Republican was quickly reminded of just how difficult it would be to craft a broad immigration agreement.

The new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Mark E. Green of Tennessee, called Tillis’ proposed immigration framework with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., “garbage” and “dead” just days into the new congressional session.

Tillis said this week he found it “confounding” that Republicans would choose to weigh in on an immigration proposal they had not even seen. He and Green, who he described as “a reasonable guy,” just need to sit down together and share information better, he said.