Democrats expressed anger at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for how he handled the Laken Riley Act, which passed the Senate this week after garnering bipartisan support.

Some lawmakers complained that Democratic leadership should have secured promises from Republicans that would have allowed amendments to the immigration reform legislation before giving their blessing to advance the bill.

Several Democratic senators, including Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), told the Hill they wanted to see some kind of immigration reform but wished they had been given a chance to add provisions to the bill that would have made it palatable to them.

Ten Democrats joined Republicans to advance the Laken Riley Act on Monday. An even larger portion of the caucus voted to proceed with the legislation last week, teeing up a major victory for President Donald Trump and Republicans.

Bennet told the outlet he believed the swift passage of the bill “reflects the way the Senate has broken down, in some respects, in the fact that we’re not able to have votes on amendments that would have improved the legislation.”

The Colorado Democrat was one of two dozen in his caucus who approved an initial vote moving the legislation forward on Jan. 13 so Congress could “have debate and so we could have amendments.”

But he suggested that it was “really problematic” that Schumer did not later mount a robust fight to add amendments to the Laken Riley Act before 12 Democrats crossed the aisle to pass the bill.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) also outlined concern about how the bill was handled while Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) expressed frustration that there was not an opportunity to vote on more amendments.

“What’s frustrating is so many people signaled, ‘I’m going to vote for it, whether there are any amendments or not,’” Kaine said. “And once the Republicans have enough Democrats who are on the record saying they’re going to vote [for a bill] regardless, what motive do they have to really have a robust amendment process … or to try to fix the bill?

“I hope my colleagues won’t just signal in advance, ‘Well, we don’t need to consider any amendments at all because I’m voting yes regardless,’” Kaine continued before taking a dig at Schumer. “I think that was a strategic error. Leadership might have been able to give everyone a little bit of a woodshed talk before.”

Despite overseeing critical losses in the Senate that led to a Democratic minority in the upper chamber during the 2024 elections, Schumer was reelected caucus leader last month. At the time, members of his leadership team, including Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Brian Schatz (D-HI), suggested it would be best for Democrats to lie relatively low and avoid resistance to Trump’s agenda.

That strategy appeared to play out during the Laken Riley debate.

Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) was among the 12 Democrats who voted in favor of the immigration reform bill and did not face fierce pushback from Schumer.

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During a recent interview with Politico, the freshman Hispanic senator mounted a firm defense of the Laken Riley Act, which is named after a nursing student who was sexually assaulted and murdered by an illegal immigrant while she was jogging.

“There has been this misunderstanding about where Latinos are when it comes to border and border security,” he said. “I’m here to bring some more real truth about what people are thinking … and so people here and senators here aren’t necessarily reliant on these immigration groups that are, I think, a lot of times, largely out of touch with where your average Latino is.”