While there has been considerable attention on illegal immigration into the U.S. recently, opinions about legal immigration have undergone a long-term change. Support for increasing the level of legal immigration has risen, while the share saying legal immigration should decrease has fallen. CONT. Pew Read more »
Are Democrats Ready to Make Immigration an Issue in the Midterms?
Nitroglycerine. That’s how one long-time political strategist recently explained the politics of immigration to me. It’s one of those issues, he said, that can just as easily explode in your face as it can blow up the other side. Right now, it looks like the Trump administration is juggling bottles […] Read more »
GOP increasingly opposes legal — not just illegal — immigration
The firestorm over the separation of children from their undocumented parents at the border has almost completely overshadowed another milestone in the long-running national immigration debate: Opposition to legal, as well as illegal, migration is hardening into a bedrock principle of the Republican Party. CONT. Ronald Brownstein, CNN Read more »
Growing Divide on Immigration and America’s Moral Leadership
Fewer than half (40%) of the public believes that the U.S. sets a good moral example for the rest of the world. Nearly six in ten (58%) believe we do not. Views have been remarkably stable since 2015 when only 43% of Americans said the U.S. provided a good moral […] Read more »
Politics Podcast: Trump Won’t Stop Talking About Immigration
President Trump backed down on Wednesday from his “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which detained parents and children who crossed the border illegally. The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast team discusses the fallout from the policy and how Trump is talking about immigration in the run up to the midterms. Also, as record […] Read more »
Trump’s Immigration Policy Is a Feature, Not a Bug
Recent news about the Trump administration separating migrant children from their parents was apparently enough to puncture the protective bubble provided by Republican voters. Only a slender majority of self-identified Republicans—a group that tends to overwhelmingly and enthusiastically support President Donald Trump’s actions—approved of the practice. The rest joined independents […] Read more »