… Although trump has broken with his party’s establishment on many issues, immigration has been the most central to his rise. …
Until recently, immigration did not sharply divide the two national parties. In 1986, 42 percent of House Republicans, along with 64 percent of House Democrats, voted for a bill giving legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants—and Ronald Reagan signed it into law. A study of public attitudes in the early 1990s noted that “the weakness of the connection between party affiliation and opinions about immigration is striking.”
Today, the opposite is true. When Pew asked last year whether immigrants make America better or worse in the long run, Democrats replied “better” by a margin of 31 points while Republicans answered “worse” by a margin of 22 points. CONT.
Peter Beinart, The Atlantic