BOSTON — The White House is turning to blue-state governors to help salvage its border deal that appears to be on the brink of collapse.

Democratic governors whose states are grappling with a surge of migrants have been in talks with the White House about turning up the pressure on Congress to pass the Senate bill as Republicans threaten to doom the deal, according to two state officials familiar with the conversations who were granted anonymity to discuss the strategy.

The White House also confirmed it has been in talks with elected leaders across the country about supporting the bill.

“We're going on offense because guess what? There was a solution sitting right in front of you,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday of Republicans on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“It was gift wrapped. You could have taken it. You could have helped solve this problem,” Hochul continued, “and I guarantee Republican governors on the border wanted this to happen.”

Democratic leaders in northern cities and states that are now on the front lines of the migrant crisis have long been pressuring Congress and President Joe Biden to toughen up on the southern border. But with a deal now on the table, they’re playing proxy for the White House in a battle it looks increasingly likely that Biden and his allies will lose.

Hochul in particular has seized the bully pulpit in a state that has seen more than 180,000 new migrants since 2022, berating New York’s House Republicans in television appearances and press conferences for trying to tank the deal in a flash of uncharacteristic aggressiveness.

And she’s threatening to make its failure a cudgel in key congressional races in the New York City suburbs that could tip........

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