The Jim Crow compromise on immigration

Only a minority of voters want immigrants here illegally to have a path to citizenship.

Most Republicans want immigrants deported.

I wrote today's post after reviewing a report published by the Pew Research Center on June 17. They sampled Americans on their opinions relating to immigrants. The Pew people have a good reputation for non-partisan fairness.

I came of age in the 1960s. The Civil Rights revolution was the great social triumph of my youth. I experienced it as American redemption. We had failed to live up to our ideals of liberty, justice, and equality for all, and then America changed itself. We overcame our past, with new laws and new social norms on the treatment of Native Americans, Blacks, Asians, and women. No more second class citizens. The Pew poll is a wake-up call to me.

A significant minority of my fellow Americans are comfortable with deporting immigrants who are here illegally. Republicans who want deportation of all immigrants are a majority of a political party which commands a majority of both chambers of Congress and the White House. They have electoral legitimacy. Trump has the power to do mass deportations. There is also a significant swing group of voters, people "in the middle," who want to deal with immigrants by keeping them as non-citizens. That may explain why Trump and Republican politicians advocate a change in birthright citizenship. It fits a larger idea. If adult immigrants are perceived as best kept as a non-citizen underclass, then their children can be as well. Immigrants from Latin America and Asia aren't really "us," and never can be, so let's not make them "us" by some unfortunate language in the 14th Amendment. It is the 21st century's version of the Dred Scott decision.

Trump is conspicuous in using presidential power to please his team, not the whole of the country. Let his team drink liberal tears; they love it. Some 59 percent of Republicans want undocumented immigrants deported. An additional 22 percent want to keep them here, but as a permanent non-citizen workforce. That totals some 80%.

Only 36 percent of Americans want what Democrats speak of as their goal for immigration peace, a "path to citizenship." Democrats mis-read Hispanic voters on this issue. A significant number of Hispanics share the Republican position; 14 percent of Hispanics want deportation, and another 36 percent want permanent non-citizenship.

The chart below records growing public disappointment with Democratic policy on immigration between 2017 and the present.

Trump succeeded in shaping the public worry about mass immigration from countries other than Western Europe. He described immigrants as replacing us. They are changing our blood, changing our language and culture. They are parasites. His attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion lays bare the racial/ethnic component. He positioned this as White people under seige. Assert their centrality as the people who own and control the country, while they still have the numbers to do so, a majority that is slipping away. If there is labor to be done, let it be done by the people already here, or by hired hands on contract, not by people who invite themselves in as partners..

The Pew poll gives us a sense of the public’s mood. I am probably an outlier, more pro-immigration than are most Americans. As always, there is lots to dislike about Trump, but he isn't out of touch on this issue, not with his Republican base.