A bipartisan group of senators, two Democrats and two Republicans, are planning on meeting next week to start negotiating a bill targeting mass detention and the separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, The Hill reports.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., will meet with Sens. Thom Tillis R-N.C., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to begin in-depth discussions.
"It's really to bridge the gap," Tillis told the Hill. "We need to go through what-if scenarios so that we can address the legitimate concerns of two- or three-year detentions if the courts get clogged up."
"Those are all solvable problems," he added, saying the goal is to "solve a very clear crisis with a very clear fix."
Feinstein, who helped to organize a previous meeting on immigration hosted by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, reached out to Tillis and Cruz on Thursday with an offer to meet next week.
Durbin, the Senate Democratic whip who helped draft the bipartisan immigration bill the Senate passed in 2013, said he is "sure" the group will "look for alternatives that are reasonable," although he would prefer President Donald Trump backtracks on his "zero tolerance" policy.
"There are some Democrats who may be more interested in a political issue to campaign on in November than in passing legislation, but there have been a number of Democratic senators who have expressed earnest desires to work with me," Cruz told the Hill, saying he "hopes" Democrats will negotiate and they and the GOP will find "productive common ground."
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.