As border debate shifts right, Sen. Alex Padilla emerges as persistent counterforce for immigrants

President Joe Biden had a question. “Is it true?” Biden asked Sen. Alex Padilla, referencing the roughly 25% of U.S. students in kindergarten through high school who are Latino. Padilla said the question came as he was waiting with the president in a back room at a library in Culver City, California, before an event in February.

Alex Padilla is taking practically every opportunity to put his stamp on the Democratic Party’s approach to immigration.