Democrats embrace tougher border enforcement, seeing Trump’s demolition of deal as a ‘gift’

By STEPHEN GROVES and MARY CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats plan to “constantly over the next year” remind voters that it was Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, who torpedoed a bipartisan bill on border enforcement. They say the strategy has already paid dividends, with Democrat Tom Suozzi, who campaigned on tougher border enforcement, winning a special election this week in New York, flipping a House seat away from Republicans. It’s a strategy with significant political risk. Republicans have campaigned on border security for years, and public frustration is running high with the record number of illegal U.S. border crossings.