SANTA FE, N.M. – The campaign for New Mexico governor is playing out on Capitol Hill, where competing candidates are engaged in the national immigration debate as members of Congress.
Republican Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Steve Pearce voted Thursday for an unsuccessful bill that would have curbed legal immigration and bolstered border security.
His rival in the governor race, Democratic Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham, unsuccessfully sought an amendment to grant a pathway to citizenship to “Dreamers” who arrived in the country illegally as children.
Pearce accuses Lujan Grisham of obstruction and says he hopes to be able to support a compromise bill in a vote scheduled for next week.
The stakes for immigration legislation have grown as President Trump reversed a decision to separate children from families who cross into the U.S. illegally.
