Senator Fetterman is once again breaking with his party’s left flank on the issues of Israel and immigration, saying that it is difficult for legal migrants to achieve “the American dream” with millions of migrants crossing the southern border illegally. 

In an interview with CNN, Mr. Fetterman said he wants to see the migrants take the legal path to citizenship as opposed to living for years in the country illegally before their immigration court dates. “I honestly don’t understand why it’s controversial to say we need a secure border,” Mr. Fetterman said.

The senator — whose wife is a Brazilian immigrant — said “I think about immigration … we want to provide the American dream for any migrant. However, it seems very difficult when you have 300,000 people showing up, encountered at our border, to achieve that.”

Gisele Fetterman lived for years as an undocumented immigrant in New York City when she was a young child, and that fact was used against Mr. Fetterman during his senate run. “That was weaponized against me … in my race, that I’m very much a strong supporter of immigration,” he said, but added that, “You can be very supportive of immigration, but we also need to have a secure border.”

During the interview, he also defended his pro-Israel stance that some on the left have criticized. “I honestly don’t understand,” he said of his critics, “I don’t understand why it’s controversial to anybody to decide that you’re going to stand with Israel in this situation.”

He first began speaking out about the border late last year, when the number of migrant crossings rose precipitously. In December 2023 alone, more than 300,000 migrants crossed into America. Some 3 million have entered and are awaiting court dates since Biden took office in January 2021.

“I hope Democrats can understand that it isn’t xenophobic to be concerned about the border,” Mr. Fetterman said at the time. “It’s a reasonable conversation, and Democrats should engage.”

“Honestly, it’s astonishing. And this isn’t a Fox News kind of statistic. This is the government’s,” he said. “You essentially have Pittsburgh showing up there at the border” every month, he said.

Mr. Fetterman has won support from voters back home in Pennsylvania, with his poll numbers rising, in part, thanks to his challenges to the liberal orthodoxy of his party.

According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, Mr. Fetterman’s support for Israel makes 26 percent of voters more likely to support him, while only 14 percent think less favorably of him because of it. On immigration, 35 percent of voters say his calls for tougher immigration laws make him more endearing, while just 9 percent say they are less likely to support him because of it. 

Among Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, he has seen his poll numbers rise. In total, 45 percent of voters support Mr. Fetterman, while 42 percent disapprove. In June, according to another Quinnipiac poll, 50 percent of voters disapproved of Mr. Fetterman’s job performance, while just 39 percent approved. 

Liberals who were once enamored by Mr. Fetterman’s politics and style turned on him after he came to Israel’s defense and refused to call for a cease-fire, as some of his ideological allies in Congress have.

In his home state, a liberal Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, Will Bunch, described Mr. Fetterman’s stance on Israel and the border as a “betrayal” that is leading to more young people tuning out of politics.