Key Immigration Politics Stories
- Biden Stands with the Majority of Americans Who Are Pro-Immigrant: Contrasts between Biden and Trump couldn’t be clearer.
- New Battleground Poll: Trump’s immigration policies are losing him more votes than they gain.
- The “Cornyn Con” Continues: John Cornyn calls himself a strong supporter of legalizing Dreamers, despite consistently voting against Dreamers and immigrants.
- TPS Under Threat: TPS is now on the ballot this November.
- Horrifying Conditions in ICE Detention Become Public: “An experimental concentration camp.”
Contrast between Biden/Dems and Trump/GOP on display
- During an interview with Telemundo’s José Díaz-Balart this week, Joe Biden highlighted his priority to reinstate DACA and pass legislation to create a clear to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in America.
- President Trump continues to seek to strip protections and deport long-settled immigrants – including TPS holders, Dreamers with and without DACA, and the rest of the 11 million.
- Trump’s relentless demonization of immigrants has forced Americans to choose. And the majority of the public stands with immigrants. Biden will promote, not prevent legal immigration. Biden will provide a legal process to evaluate the claims of those seeking asylum, including vulnerable children, not deport them or drive them out without a hearing. Biden will end the use of private detention centers where abuse is rife.
New polling: Trump’s anti-immigrant political strategy hurts him more than helps him
- New polling of 1,500 likely voters across 12 battleground states by Global Strategy Group (GSG) shows that Trump’s anti-immigrant political strategy is not working.
- In polling conducted August 28 – September 7 for The Immigration Hub, FWD.us and America’s Voice, Trump’s positions on his signature immigration issue are losing him more votes than they gain. Key findings include:
- Trump’s “amnesty” attacks against Biden are falling flat. According to GSG pollsters, “that’s because voters largely support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.”
- 43% of voters across battleground states view Trump’s position on immigration as a reason to vote against him, while only 39% of voters see it as a reason to vote for him. Among Independents, just 33% say it is a reason to vote for Trump, while 44% say it is a reason to vote against him. According to Global Strategy Group, this suggests “that Trump’s rhetoric and messaging on immigration is doing little for him outside of his core group of supporters.”
- In a series of head-to-head comparisons, Republican arguments are losing to Democratic arguments, including on sanctuary cities, the border wall, financial relief during the pandemic, and citizenship for the undocumented.
- Read the poll summary memo from pollster Global Strategy Group with key details (see here)
The “Cornyn Con:” Senator John Cornyn calls himself a strong supporter of legalizing Dreamers despite a record of voting against legalizing Dreamers
- Senator John Cornyn is out with a new Spanish-language ad as part of his re-election campaign against MJ Hegar, claiming that he “strongly supports the legalization of Dreamers.” It’s a jaw-dropping claim considering his actual record.
- Cornyn is so infamous for faking support and voting ‘no’ on immigration that it’s been dubbed the “Cornyn Con.”
- As Frank Sharry of AV said, “When I heard Cornyn’s recent ad claiming that he ‘strongly supports the legalization of Dreamers’ it made my blood boil. It’s a bald-faced lie. Here’s his Senate floor vote record on bipartisan proposals to legalize Dreamers: 2006: no; 2007: no (twice); 2010 (no); 2013: no; 2018 on the only bipartisan proposal proposal that had a chance of passing: no.”
Ramos decision ensures TPS will be on the ballot in November
- The disappointing Ramos TPS ruling issued this week means whoever wins the presidency on November 3rd will decide the fate of 300,000 immigrants who have lived here for decades who are American in everything but paperwork.
- While TPS is not as well known as DACA, it’s very similar: long-settled immigrants who have work permits and protection against deportation are under attack by Trump and Stephen Miller. The House of Representatives has approved H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act, which would put DACA and TPS holders on a path to citizenship.
- Frank Sharry of AV said, “Trump wants to drive immigrants out of the country and keep immigrants and refugees from being admitted. He ended DACA, ended TPS for most nationalities, and is intent on enacting a cruel policy aimed uprooting the lives of hardworking, taxpaying, law abiding families — including more than 131,000 essential workers fighting the coronavirus. TPS is on the ballot in November. And if we do not remove Trump and the rest of his Republican toadies and protectors, we could see one of the largest mass deportations and family separation crises in American history.”
Horrifying Conditions in ICE Detention Become Public: “An experimental concentration camp.”
- For four years in office and since the day he announced his campaign, Donald Trump has systematically dehumanized immigrants. He degrades them with his words and persecutes them with his actions. He has elevated Stephen Miller, a white nationalist, to a position of overseeing all of America’s immigration system, and put anti-immigrant zealots like Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, neither of whom were appointed legally or confirmed by the Senate, in positions of power.
- They have set the tone, the policies and the permission structure. And now, after a sustained campaign of treating immigrants and refugees as less than human, we learn of allegations that women’s bodies are being violated without their permission at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia.
- Doug Rivlin of AV we said, “We all have the power to do something about it. We have the power of our vote. While the Congress is moving swiftly to investigate these and other abuses, we know that the only way to truly change the conditions and to reject the moral depravity that allows this to happen is to remove the President and his henchmen from office. Then we can begin the process of healing the United States from the trauma that is the Trump presidency.”
Racist Campign Ad of the Week (from our newly remodeled site, 2020 Ad Watch)
- Read our thread on the “Racist Dog Whistle Ad of the Week” here.
- The Republican Governors Association is running a $3 million ad campaign in NC employing a range of racist and xenophobic dog-whistles against Gov. Roy Cooper. At issue is Gov. Cooper’s veto of a purely partisan “sanctuary cities” bill in 2019.
- The times are a-changin: A Democratic governor in a southern swing state vetoed a Republican anti-sanctuary bill that was put forward in hopes of attacking the Governor. Gov. Cooper has a double-digit lead.
