Democrats are working behind the scenes to shift the party’s positioning on immigration as polling shows it could be a losing issue for President Joe Biden and a boon for former President Donald Trump.
According to a report from NBC News’ Sahil Kapur, “The ‘Democrats for Border Security’ task force is co-chaired by Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who represents a border district, and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who flipped a Republican-held swing district after he campaigned on his support for tougher border laws. One thing they have in common: They’re fed up with the party’s leftward turn on immigration over the last decade and want a course change to emphasize enforcement.”
And in the report, Kapur also highlighted a shift in the traditional Democratic base come election time. Kapur writes:
The leftward shift traces to former President Barack Obama’s second term after he dominated among Hispanic voters in 2012. A popular narrative formed that a more liberal immigration stance was key to winning more Hispanic voters. Democrats, egged on by activists who criticized Obama as too tough on deportations, de-emphasized punishment for lawbreakers and focused their rhetoric on creating pathways to citizenship.
But over time that narrative fell apart, as the asylum system became overwhelmed with more migrants than the government can process. In 2016, Trump gained ground with Hispanic voters relative to Republicans in 2012, while campaigning on mass deportations for people in the U.S. illegally, winning 28%. That rose to 38% for Trump in 2020, when his harsh immigration policies included family separation. Diverse Texas districts along the Mexico border, once Democratic strongholds, have shifted toward Republicans.
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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.
