Sen. Tim Kaine to force votes on conditions for deported migrants
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) will force votes in the coming weeks meant to compel the Trump administration to answer questions about human rights conditions in six countries to which it deported migrants who are not citizens of those countries.
Kaine filed the resolutions Thursday under the Foreign Assistance Act, a 1961 law that allows a single senator to force votes to require the State Department to produce reports on human rights, even though Republicans control the Senate. It’s the latest effort by Democrats to pull the limited levers available to them to push back on President Donald Trump’s policies and actions.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that the Trump administration could, for now, deport migrants to countries of which they are not citizens. Those deportations are part of the administration’s ramped-up efforts to remove undocumented immigrants from the United States — a central campaign promise from Trump. Kaine’s resolutions ask the State Department to report on human rights abuses, violations of due process and human trafficking in six countries that have agreed to accept such migrants: Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Rwanda, South Sudan and Eswatini. They also request assessments of the conditions in detention centers and prisons in those countries where migrants are detained and information about any agreements the administration struck with the countries or payments it made to them, among other details.
“This is all about congressional oversight,” Kaine said. “Trump is using taxpayer dollars in an unusual way to send people to random countries that are not their home countries from which they came.”
The administration has embraced deporting migrants to countries other than their own, which the U.S. has rarely done in the past. Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote in a memo to the agency’s workforce last month that immigration officers may deport immigrants to third countries with as little as six hours’ notice, even if officials have not provided any assurances that they will be safe from persecution or torture.
Senators are preparing to head home for their August recess in the coming days, and Kaine said the resolutions are likely to come up for a vote when the Senate returns in September.
With Republicans in control of Congress, Kaine and other Democratic lawmakers have turned to little-used laws to hold Trump accountable — or at least force Republicans to take uncomfortable votes.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) and seven other Democrats sent a letter to the Justice Department on Wednesday invoking a rarely used 1928 law to demand that the administration make public the records involving Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in federal custody in 2019 after his arrest on sex trafficking charges. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) forced two votes Wednesday night on blocking U.S. weapons sales to Israel, although those votes split Democrats rather than dividing Republicans.
Kaine has embraced the tactic, forcing votes on resolutions to undercut Trump’s tariffs and to block Trump from again striking Iran. The resolutions can’t be filibustered and require only a simple majority to pass the Senate, but only one garnered enough votes for passage. Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Rand Paul (Kentucky) joined Democrats to pass Kaine’s resolution to undo the national emergency that allowed Trump to impose tariffs on Canada, although it died in the House.
The human rights resolutions Kaine introduced Thursday face tougher odds.
No Republicans voted for a similar resolution in May that would have directed the administration to produce a report on human rights in El Salvador, another country to which the administration has deported migrants who have no connection to the country. Kaine’s resolutions would also need to pass the House, where Republicans have blocked votes on similar resolutions. And Trump would need to sign the resolutions before they would take effect.
Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), the No. 2 Senate Republican, described Kaine’s El Salvador resolution as “a political stunt” ahead of the vote.
“Today Senate Democrats are voting once again to defend illegal immigrant criminals,” Barrasso said in May. “They seem to like to do that. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. That’s who Senate Democrats are here to protect, and that’s who Senate Democrats seem to want to defend.”
Kaine said the resolutions are worth it to put Senate Republicans on the record about Trump’s policies.
“These are questions that Congress needs answers to,” Kaine said. “If a member of Congress is going to stand up and say, ‘No, I’m uninterested in getting the answer to these questions’ — well, that’s a relevant fact for voters and others to consider.”
Kaine is more optimistic about securing Republican support for a resolution he plans to introduce to challenge Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, which are set to take effect next week. Trump announced the 50 percent tariffs last month in retaliation for Brazil’s prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial on charges of plotting to remain in power after losing reelection in 2022, among other justifications.
“Is that really a national emergency for the United States?” Kaine said. “I think that assertion of an emergency may trouble some folks who were not on board with our earlier ones.”
Kaine also challenged the national emergency that Trump declared to impose tariffs on much of the rest of the world, but the April vote failed because Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) and McConnell were absent. Many Republicans defended Trump’s tariffs strategy at the time.
“I know that something has to change and that President Trump is the first politician in a generation to even care enough to try,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) said on the Senate floor before the vote.
The 1977 law that Kaine has used to force votes on Trump’s tariffs allows him to renew those challenges every six months — which Kaine said he plans to do. He believes Republicans frustrated with the tariffs who did not support his resolutions the first time will consider voting for them as the economic damage from the tariffs mounts, he said.
“I do think the president’s use of the emergency power to end-run Congress will start to create more and more heartburn” for Senate Republicans, Kaine said. “And so over time, the more emergencies he declares, the more he end-runs Congress, the more I might start to get some people coming my way.”