Democratic support for immigrants -- legal and illegal -- is chipping away at their support from the party's historic base, working class voters, who believe that the newcomers are robbing jobs.
"The Democrats have moved from seeking to manage and champion the nation's growing immigrant diversity to seeming to champion immigrant rights over American citizens'," according to longtime Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg.
Since the 2016 election, Greenberg has returned to Macomb County to gauge the effect of President Trump and he found that Trump supporters have doubled down on concerns. For example, he told the Prospect, "It was clear how central concerns about immigration, borders, foreignness, and Islam were to their receptivity to his call to take back America. Many thought [Hillary] Clinton, on the other hand, wanted ‘open borders."
While he is hoping that Democrats can eventually chart a path from "this ugly interlude," the Trump administration sees analysis like Greenberg's as support for its hardline stance on illegal immigration.
Since the 2016 election, Greenberg has returned to Macomb County to gauge the effect of President Trump and he found that Trump supporters have doubled down on concerns. For example, he told the Prospect, "It was clear how central concerns about immigration, borders, foreignness, and Islam were to their receptivity to his call to take back America. Many thought [Hillary] Clinton, on the other hand, wanted ‘open borders."
While he is hoping that Democrats can eventually chart a path from "this ugly interlude," the Trump administration sees analysis like Greenberg's as support for its hardline stance on illegal immigration.