FORT WORTH, Texas _ Republicans are running hard on strict immigration policies that excite their base in this fall's midterm elections.
Two days after that contest ends, however, the second-highest-ranking Republican Senate leader, who is up for re-election in Texas in 2020, plans to meet with the president of a national Latino advocacy group to discuss the issue.
Sen. John Cornyn is likely to face a tough race in a state where Democrats improved their showing in the most recent presidential election. He invested significant resources courting Hispanic support for his past races.
Domingo Garcia, a Dallas resident who took over as president of the League of United Latin American Citizens in July, said Monday that he has a meeting scheduled Nov. 8 with Cornyn to discuss, among other things, finding a solution to keep beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in the U.S. A Cornyn aide said his office is "in touch with the organization" and "working to set up a meeting," but did not confirm the date.
Federal courts stopped President Donald Trump's attempt to end DACA last spring. Multiple lawsuits are again challenging its constitutionality, including one filed by in August by the Texas attorney general.
Cornyn was among the Republican leaders who last year negotiated with Democrats on failed efforts to protect DACA beneficiaries from deportation. His stand on past efforts to unite Republicans and Democrats on immigration legislation has frustrated immigration groups.
Meanwhile, leaders of the nonpartisan LULAC have become increasingly irritated with other Texas Republican officials, who Garcia said are treating Latino voters like a "political pinata."
At a gathering in Fort Worth Saturday, Garcia railed against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office emphasized the indictment of four Fort Worth Latinas for suspected voter fraud this month. Local Republican officials were invited to the event and have attended in the past, but only Democrats spoke that morning.
"The Republican Party has decided that the politics of fearmongering and hate will play well to their base and will get their voters out," Garcia said of the candidates this fall.
Of Cornyn, however, Garcia said: "We consider him to be open-minded and willing to work across the aisle."
"We really need bipartisan pushes on immigration reform and on health care and on education and on infrastructure," said Garcia, who ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2014.
Garcia noted that the November election results will largely determine what he's able to accomplish in their meeting.
Democrats need to flip 23 Republican-held seats to take control of the House this fall. They need a net gain of two seats to take control of the Senate.
Garcia said he wants to "start the dialogue and see if we can get the ball rolling" on an immigration solution to protect DACA beneficiaries and deported veterans.
"I want to speak to Senator Cornyn and other Republicans to see where we can find compromise and middle ground," he said.
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(Andrea Drusch is the Washington correspondent for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.)
