On no issue have the political dynamics changed more in the last few years than on the issue of immigration. A country seemingly on the cusp of immigration reform early in President Barack Obama’s second term in the next presidential contest elected Donald Trump, whose anti-immigration positions were central to his political rise.
The shift within the Republican Party has been especially dramatic. Following Obama’s victory in 2012, the Republican National Committee “autopsy” report blamed anti-immigrant rhetoric for a failure to win over more Hispanic voters and, in a rarity for a document produced by a political organization, pushed for a change in party policy on immigration. Fourteen Republicans would vote for the Senate’s 2013 reform bill that included a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
With Donald Trump, Republican voters in 2016 went in the opposite direction. Hard-edged immigration proposals such as the border wall and a ban on Muslims entering the country were cornerstones of the Trump campaign in the primaries. CONT.
Patrick Ruffini, Voter Study Group
