Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH, who voted for a failed amendment to the Inflation Reduction Act that would’ve preserved Title 42 restrictions on immigration. (marcn/CC BY 2.0)
WASHINGTON — Fallout has begun over the decision by six Democratic senators to vote for a failed messaging amendment by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) to preserve Title 42 restrictions on immigration.
“Last time she almost lost her election and this time she’s doing everything in her power to lose our votes,” said New Hampshire state Rep. Maria Perez (D-Milford), who made a video to express her indignation over Sen. Maggie Hassan’s (D-NH) messaging vote during Sunday morning’s vote-o-rama to preserve Title 42 through the Inflation Reduction Act.
.@Maggie_Hassan Give us your reasoning behind voting to allow title 42 expulsions. Do you really believe that immigrants are causing surges in COVID cases or are you just using it as an excuse to remove us from the country? I have my guess.
No human being is illegal. Period. pic.twitter.com/K1vJPPXAGP
— State Rep Maria Perez???✊??????️??? (@mariapz1974) August 9, 2022
In the video, Perez says in Spanish that she’s frustrated with Hassan’s vote in support of Title 42.
“Sen. Hassan, how many more times are you going to slap us in the face only to ask for our support at the polls in November?” said Perez, who also serves as the vice chair for human rights for the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislatures. “How many of our votes do you think you will get supporting these laws that only make it more difficult for our brothers who try to apply for asylum? I ask you this: How much more damage are you going to do to our community? And how many more times are you going to ask for our support during the elections?”
Hassan was joined by five other Senate Democrats who voted for the messaging vote over Title 42. The vote ultimately failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to pass, with Hassan, Tester, Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), Mark Kelly (AZ), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), and Raphael Warnock (GA) voting to approve the measure, which was rejected by a vote of 56 to 44.
Six @SenateDems voted FOR the failed Title 42 messaging amendment. They are:
– @SenCortezMasto
– @SenMarkKelly
– @SenatorTester
– @SenatorWarnock
– @SenatorHassan
– @SenatorSinema https://t.co/sDiukaDxXb— Pablo Manríquez (@PabloReports) August 7, 2022
Tester’s amendment was a derivative of an amendment by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), inserting Title 42 into the bill as a “poison pill”—the congressional term for a measure that, if adopted, would kill an entire legislative package.
Latino Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez (NJ) and Alex Padilla (CA) indicated earlier in the week that they would vote down the entire reconciliation package if anti-immigrant amendments were attached to the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed early Sunday afternoon by a party-line vote with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaker.
The bill now goes to the House where Democrats are expected to vote on it Friday.
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Pablo Manríquez is the Capitol Hill correspondent for Latino Rebels. Twitter: @PabloReports
