Democrats prepare to go on offense on immigration in the coming weeks

WASHINGTON — Democrats are preparing an aggressive new immigration strategy months after Republicans blocked a bipartisan border security bill aimed at easing record-high illegal crossings along the southern border, according to officials who discussed the plans with NBC News.

At a meeting in the Senate last week, key administration officials and top Democratic lawmakers discussed a path forward that would include forcing votes that Republicans would be likely to oppose, two sources said. The discussions included potential executive actions within the coming weeks, three sources said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York attended the meeting, which covered other topics but focused largely on immigration, the sources said.

The purpose of the discussion was to ensure alignment between Democrats on an issue the party seeks to capitalize on ahead of the November election, when the party will seek to take back control of the House and defend its control of the Senate and the White House.

In one potential scenario, Senate Democrats would take the lead by calling up various pieces of legislation, perhaps even parts of the bipartisan deal negotiated by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., James Lankford, R-Okla., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and trying to pass them by a process known as unanimous consent — to which any single senator can object.

“Democrats have made clear that the situation at the border is unacceptable," Schumer said in a statement. "That’s why we worked in a bipartisan fashion to craft the strongest border security bill in a generation, endorsed by the border patrol union."

He blamed Republicans and former President Donald Trump for the deal's falling