Washington, DC —Last week, we highlighted the significance of Kamala Harris leaning in on immigration and border issues, and the importance of pro-immigrant candidates and lawmakers drawing sharp contrasts with their opponents and defining themselves as seeking reforms to our broken immigration system that pair an orderly border with legal pathways and opportunities for long-settled immigrants. Several fresh polls and commentary, highlighted and excerpted below, underscore these points.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“The American public, including Latino voters and broad majorities of battleground state voters, want a functional immigration system and endorse a balanced approach that pairs an orderly border alongside a pathway to citizenship for immigrant families, instead of a mass deportation-only alternative. The Harris campaign should continue to lean in on immigration and draw sharp contrasts, including between her vision of balanced reform and support for Dreamers, the spouses of U.S. citizens and long-settled families, versus the Trump preference for mass deportations and immigration as an issue to run on but never resolve.”
Among the key commentaries and fresh polling that underscores the importance and political salience of leaning in, defining support for a balanced approach, and drawing sharp contrasts include:
- Poll of Latino voters in battleground states show support for balanced immigration vision instead of enforcement-only: As Greg Sargent highlights in The New Republic, a new poll of Latino voters in battleground states conducted by BSP Research for Somos PAC finds Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump 55-37 percent among these voters and support for the balanced approach. As Sargent writes: “It’s also sometimes said that Trump’s restrictionist immigration policies and promises of mass deportations actually appeal to Latino voters who have settled in the U.S. and oppose undocumented migration under Biden. But in the poll, a message pairing increased border security with a path to legalization for various groups of undocumented immigrants living here—which Harris favors and Trump opposes—leads 65 percent of Latinos to view Harris more favorably.”
- Semafor highlights a new memo and battleground polling from the Immigration Hub – 69-31% support for legalization over mass deportation. Semafor highlighted the new memo from Beatriz Lopez at the Immigration Hub highlighting findings and implications of battleground polling from Global Strategy Group and BSP Research. As Semafor writes: “66% of battleground voters support balancing border security with protection for Dreamers. While president, Trump tried to end the Obama-era program protecting children who were brought to the US by their parents. That could backfire. The poll also shows 66% support allowing undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to stay in the country legally. Further data shows Trump’s promises of mass deportations aren’t popular with key battleground voters. Only 31% of independents in those states support a national effort to remove undocumented immigrants, while 69% of independents say there should be a way for undocumented immigrants who meet certain requirements to stay here legally.”
- Ed Kilgore writing for New York Magazine, “Republicans Will Regret Calling for Mass Deportations,”: “The first real stirrings of a new right-wing rebellion against Establishment Republicanism began in sharp grassroots reaction to ‘amnesty’ proposals from George W. Bush and John McCain to provide a path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants. McCain was forced to all but repudiate his own long-standing position on the subject in order to nail down the GOP nomination in 2008. And then in 2012, the allegedly moderate Mitt Romney used a tough line on immigration to outflank conservative rivals like Rick Perry and Rick Santorum. By the time Trump began running for president with his birtherist attacks on Obama as an alleged alien, Romney’s encouragement of ‘self-deportation’ was already looking a bit too mild for his party … Sooner — perhaps before the 2024 elections — or later, if mass deportation is actually attempted, Republicans will regret their current immigration bender. Perhaps the current reductions in border crossings or the emergence of other issues will turn down the red-hot pressure to push millions of people out of the United States. But if not, we could soon be experiencing scenes of violence and misery similar to what many of the country’s migrants came here seeking to flee.”
- New opinion piece in MSNBC from David J. Bier, director of immigration studies, Cato Institute: “Democrats’ instincts are right in one respect: Americans really don’t like chaos. Harris shouldn’t defend lawlessness. Instead, she should tout how the administration is quietly rebuilding the legal immigration system devastated by four years of President Trump and creating new legal ways for people to come, reducing illegal immigration. Much more work must be done to fix the system, but Harris can credibly say she wants people to come lawfully. How exactly does Trump think people should come? Well, Trump’s record shows that he only slashed legal immigration. He didn’t reduce illegal immigration. That’s the only answer that matters. Harris needs to see that Biden’s defensiveness about immigration failed badly. She must start from a position of strength. Immigrants — legal and illegal — are helping America solve its biggest challenges. Force Trump to explain why that’s bad. He can’t, but so far, he has never had to. Now is Harris’ chance to change that.”
