But votes in the Senate as recently as last year have shown that measures dealing with immigration policy on a piecemeal basis, especially those viewed by Democrats as racially motivated and aimed at broadly painting immigrants as dangerous, are not likely to meet the Senate’s 60-vote threshold required to advance most legislation.

“To the extent that 60 [votes are still required], I would expect we’d be able to sustain,” New Jersey Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez said.

Menendez, a member of the bipartisan “gang of eight” that helped usher a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill through the Senate in 2013, acknowledged that while some Democrats chose to vote with Republicans on enforcement bills in the past, “many more did not.”