WASHINGTON — Congressional Hispanic Caucus members, including Texans, forcefully pushed back Thursday on immigration actions President Donald Trump has taken during his first days in office.

Members of the Democratic group demanded a seat at the table for further policy changes and said Trump’s early moves are threatening farmworkers, families and people brought into the country without authorization as children, commonly referred to as Dreamers.

“Donald Trump and Republican politicians have embarked on a campaign to radically alter American society by stripping away constitutional, legal and civil rights, ending birthright citizenship and pushing people into the shadows,” said U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio.

Driven by Trump’s priorities, executive orders and other policy changes, immigration has dominated the new session of Congress, which is now under GOP control.

As a border state with a large population of undocumented immigrants, Texas has much at stake in the debate, and Texas lawmakers from each party are playing prominent roles.

Congress this week sent to the president’s desk the Laken Riley Act, which would require federal authorities to detain people in the country illegally and accused of stealing, assaulting law enforcement officers or committing other crimes.

The bill passed with the support of dozens of Democrats, including two from Texas.

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a San Antonio Republican who represents a long stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, welcomed Democrats showing interest in supporting immigration-related measures.

“It’s almost like they got a memo from the election results,” Gonzales said.

However, many Democrats have denounced Trump’s immigration moves.

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus whip, said Thursday she and her colleagues would fight to protect immigrants’ due process rights.

“The Congressional Hispanic Caucus will keep their eyes on the ball and will always look to making sure that all immigrants are treated with dignity and respect,” she said.

Hours before Garcia, Castro and other Hispanic caucus members held their news conference, U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, R-Woodville, stood at the same podium promoting his bill to restrict birthright citizenship in line with Trump’s executive order to do the same.

Babin’s legislation would limit automatic birthright citizenship to those who have at least one parent who is a citizen, permanent legal resident or lawful immigrant serving in the U.S. military.

Babin was joined at the news conference by other Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound, Morgan Luttrell of Magnolia and Randy Weber of Friendswood.

Gill criticized the immigration policies of the previous administration, saying Democrats have been “importing over 10 million illegal aliens” and causing chaos in the U.S.

“We’re importing the Third World and, in the process, we’re becoming the Third World,” Gill said.

The 14th Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

But Trump and many Republicans have insisted the amendment wasn’t intended to confer citizenship on children of undocumented immigrants.

Democrats say the courts don’t view the 14th Amendment in the way Trump and Republicans do. Garcia cited her background as a judge and predicted the attempt to limit birthright citizenship will be found unconstitutional.

“Some people need to just sit down and read the damn Constitution,” Garcia said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday urged Congress to reimburse the state for $11.1 billion spent on his Operation Lone Star border security initiative.

Texas Republicans were generally in favor of granting the request, although they acknowledged challenges in quickly getting it through Congress.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, said he talked with Abbott when the governor was in Washington for Trump’s inauguration and pledged to do what he could to help.

“The state of Texas has paid the bills that the federal government should have paid long ago for border security,” Goldman said.

U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, said he can’t predict what Trump might do in response to the reimbursement request, but he questioned the wisdom of sending Abbott the money, calling the operation a failure.

“It was $11 billion of squandered taxpayer dollars because he never stopped the migrants from coming across,” Gonzalez said.

Further evidence of how much immigration is dominating Capitol Hill came as Brooke Rollins faced pointed questions about the administration’s policies during her confirmation hearing as U.S. secretary of agriculture.

Originally from Glen Rose, Rollins lives in Fort Worth with her husband. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development and served as White House domestic policy chief during Trump’s first presidency.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., pressed Rollins about the agricultural implications of Trump’s mass deportation plan. He said 40 percent of farmworkers in the country are undocumented and suggested dairy operations and farms would go bust without immigrant labor.

“Can we expect this administration to be raiding farms and going after the immigrant farmworkers?” Durbin asked.

Rollins said she supports Trump’s “vision of a secure border and a mass deportation at a scale that matters,” adding that early enforcement actions are expected to focus on criminals.

She said she would work to ensure the agriculture industry’s needs are considered.

“My commitment is to work with all of you, to work to solve and do everything we can to make sure that none of these farms or dairy producers are put out of business,” Rollins said.

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