Immigration is definitely on Americans minds... And media is allowing more coverage & punditry than ever urging Democrats to be cautious.
Election day has come and gone with the Republicans gaining some key victories in the states of Virginia and New Jersey. Recent history suggests that those types of shifts mean the Republicans should have really good midterm elections next November. But what does that mean for immigration?
New polls show immigration remains salient
A new Harvard-Harris poll from October shows immigration among the top 3 issues at 29%. CNN also conducted a poll that shows immigration as their 3rd highest issue at 14% as the issues concerning Americans continue to change:
"And as the election year approaches, the nation's issue landscape appears to be shifting. With the latest wave of Covid-19 infections subsiding and prices on the rise, the economy (36%) outranks the coronavirus pandemic (20%) as the most important issue facing the country. Immigration (14%) and climate change (11%) follow and are the only other issues to land in double-digits, followed by national security (8%), racial injustice (5%) and education (3%)."
Post-election thoughts
Meanwhile, the New York Times had a post-election editorial highlighting how Democrats should work to implement policies to help the American people.
"Congress should focus on what is possible, not what would be impossible if Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema and - frankly - a host of lesser-known Democratic moderates who haven't had to vote on policies they might oppose were not in office."
Continued Interest in Political Parties and Their Internal Divisions
Yesterday, Pew Research released a report that attempted to draw factions within both the left and right coalitions (they also made a quiz if you want to see what category you fall into according to them).
Whether you agree or disagree with the lines they draw or the conclusions Pew arrives at, they offer some interesting insight about the divide among Democrats about whether to increase immigration (President Biden introduced a plan to do so) or not:
Democratic-oriented groups also differ over the extent to which they see immigration as a good, with Democratic Mainstays, in particular, offering somewhat more conservative views. For example, while 63% of Progressive Left and 54% of Outsider Left say the U.S. should admit more legal immigrants, that drops to 44% of Establishment Liberals and 28% of Democratic Mainstays (most say the number of legal immigrants should stay about the same).
While we'd like to be discussing lowering immigration levels as an option rather than just keeping them the same or increasing them, and Pew doesn't do that here, we know that Harvard-Harris polling (page 68) found in 2018 that Democrats and liberals favored immigration levels that were lower than a million per year (the current level) when given numerical options.
Peruse the report if you're inclined and see what you think.
Columnists, politicians speak out against terrible plan to pay separated families
Jonathan S. Tobin of Newsweek and Andrew C. McCarthy of National Review wrote these commentaries on the terrible plan to pay migrants who were separated at the border during the Trump-Era 'no tolerance policy':
Tobin's commentary: "The separation of families was doubtless traumatic and governments are liable for paying damages even to criminals when they have been subjected to illegal treatment that violate their constitutional rights. But family separation is not illegal. It happens every day when those who are accused of crimes are arrested. When that involves children being left on their own, it often means they, too, are taken into custody and put in some facility or in foster care, both of which can involve trauma. But the fact that family separation at the border produced dramatic videos for television news doesn't mean those who entered the country illegally are entitled to sue the government for the suffering their families endured as a result of their own behavior."
McCarthy's commentary: "When American adults violate the criminal law, it is common for them to be imprisoned and thus separated from their children, often for years, frequently in penitentiaries remote from where the families reside. If an arrest takes place when the criminal parent is in the company of his family - regardless of whether the family is knowledgeable of or complicit in the alleged criminality - the accused may be forcibly separated from the family. Tragically, the children can be scarred by this experience. But the fault for that lies with the adult criminals, not American law-enforcement officers or the American taxpayer. We don't pay criminals' families compensation for their suffering."
Congressman Tony Gonzales (R-TX) also spoke out against the hasty plan:
"It is the wrong approach. The entire immigration system is broken completely and instead of trying to reform a legal immigration process, instead of taking the energy and putting it into doing that, they are focused on settlements of astronomical numbers. $450,000 per person, one million per family. Americans don't get those types of resources. It's the wrong approach. And what's dangerous is this is going to set a precedent going forward."
Other recommended reads
- U.S. Border Patrol agents released 283,000 migrants into the US over the past year, with 95,000 untracked according to the Washington Examiner. "The Mexican president and the Guatemalan president are saying that the [Biden] administration has given the impression of open borders," said Cuellar, a Democrat whose district sits on the Texas-Mexico border. "You can imagine what's the word on the street over there, and that's why we keep getting people coming in."
- 10 million Americans want a full-time job but don't have one. About 2.2% fewer Working-age men and 2.6% fewer working-age women have jobs than before coronavirus. Not sure if the discrepancy isn't in part because more families are homeschooling, whether by choice or necessity. But the HUGE difference is black men, of whom 4% fewer have jobs.
Wayback Wednesday
Byron York's Daily Memo covers Rep. Jim Jordan's new book and specifically looks back at how Paul Ryan sabotaged real immigration reform in 2018.
NUSA past coverage
Breaking Down House Votes on the Securing America's Future Act & the Goodlatte-Ryan-Denham Amnesty (June 28, 2018)
House Rejects Goodlatte-Ryan-Denham Amnesty Bill (June 27, 2018)
'Goodlatte bill' vote was highest in House EVER to end chain migration & mandate E-Verify (June 22, 2018)
We will continue to bring you the latest in immigration journalism next week, and we appreciate your efforts to stay informed and share important, high-quality information that helps the public hold firm against bad immigration reforms while holding accountable those who undermine credible enforcement.
Thank you for your dedication in all that you do.
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