Most of the people paid to report or comment on immigration in the United States believe illegal immigrants in general should not be deported.
Most of the media folks commenting on and covering the riots in Los Angeles are generally sympathetic with the cause, even if they’re uneasy with the most violent and antisocial behavior on display, but even on that score, they object to rioting because it’s politically unhelpful, not because it’s bad in itself.
These voices are the loudest, but theirs is the minority view. Most people believe that illegally entering the U.S. or overstaying a visa is an offense against this country and that it’s right and fitting to deport illegal immigrants. Most people despise those who block traffic, loot, and burn down buildings.
Former President Joe Biden’s experiment with open borders was extremely unpopular, and it likely helped shift public support, especially among legal immigrants, massively toward President Donald Trump. The Los Angeles riots are also likely to harm Democrats.
At the start of the riots in LA over federal deportation raids, polls showed that, on the question of immigration, respondents, and particularly immigrants, trusted Republicans more than Democrats.
There is a massive and consequential divide in opinions about immigration in America. It’s a class divide and a philosophical divide, and it’s worth exploring in some depth.
The divide
“There is no such thing as an ‘illegal immigrant.’” That’s a common refrain among the liberal commentariat.
“No Human is ‘Illegal,’” was the title of a recent event at Amherst College, featuring Pulitzer Prize- and Emmy-winning journalist Jose Antonio-Vargas, who discussed “his public journey as an undocumented Filipino immigrant” with Amherst’s chairwoman of “Latinx & American studies.”
This is the cultural milieu in which most of our media operate. They do not think that illegally entering or overstaying is bad, and they do not believe that deportation is appropriate for illegal immigrants who otherwise are law-abiding. The media class and much of the political class also believe that basically everyone except for known terrorists or violent criminals should be allowed into our country.
Trump’s approval rating overall is negative, but on immigration, it is positive. CNN pollster Harry Enten says Trump’s polling has improved on immigration more than it has on any other issue.
Democrats and the news media spent the 2024 election attacking Trump’s “mass deportation” plans. A CBS News poll in early June found that people approved of Trump’s deportation plans, 54%-46%.
Enten pointed out that most immigrants support Trump’s immigration policies and that this group has shifted massively in Trump’s direction over time.
That is, the media and the Democratic governing class are way out of line with the public on immigration.
What’s behind this divide? Some of it is class differences: the elites versus the working class. Also, there’s a philosophical chasm explaining this divide.
Start with economics and the question of how you interact with immigrant labor: Do you compete with immigrant labor more than you consume it? Specifically, do you compete with illegal immigrant labor more than you consume it?
If you paint houses, mow lawns, wash dishes, or work in construction, illegal immigrants might be driving down your wages.
If you hire someone to mow your lawn, on the other hand, illegal immigrants are a cheaper source of labor.
Twenty-five years ago, I asked Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) if the U.S. should deport the approximately 10 million illegal immigrants in the country at the time, and he commented that restaurants in Washington and Chicago wouldn’t have anyone in the kitchen if we did that.
“Get ready to wait longer at your favorite neighborhood restaurant,” was the argument Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) used to oppose the deportation of illegal immigrants.
In short, the working class bears the direct economic brunt of illegal immigration while the wealthy get the direct benefit.
Of course, people don’t form their policy and moral views simply on material economic considerations. We all belong to various tribes, which also fall along class lines, and different tribes have different values.
For the middle class and working class, patriotism, one might even say nationalism, is seen as a virtue. Most Americans’ identity is largely formed by their American-ness.
This isn’t true in all corners of the U.S., though.
Much of the media and political class are part of a borderless tribe, and thus, they think they are above tribalism. The ties that bind their extended families and their social circles are education, professional concerns, even internationalism itself. The wonder of the modern world, in this elite, globalist mindset, is frictionless mobility that overcomes the old-fashioned and the arbitrary.
Fareed Zakaria of CNN is an embodiment of this worldview. India-born, Ivy League-educated, and the author of The Post-American World, Zakaria is a citizen of the world. He believes the U.S. is far too strict in keeping out foreigners: “Every visa officer today lives in fear that he will let in the next Mohammad Atta. As a result, he is probably keeping out the next Bill Gates.”
This globalist and antinationalist viewpoint shows up in trade and foreign policy in addition to immigration. Until Trump took over the Republican Party in 2016, both parties were run by elites who were interventionist, open-border free traders, while the base of both parties was much more noninterventionist, restrictionist, and protectionist.
The media and political class are also out of touch with immigrants themselves, as Enten’s numbers showed. This is largely because elites don’t directly interact with immigrants but instead with the purported representatives of immigrants.
For instance, the Baltimore Sun recently ran a story about how ICE raids were affecting “the community” of immigrants. “The community is very upset and very scared,” was the central message of the piece, but this quotation didn’t come from an immigrant — it came from a local activist. The article also quoted a Democratic city councilman and two immigration attorneys. The only immigrant quoted was a landlord who entered the country illegally and whose tenants were recently arrested by ICE. Most of the story comes from activists who work to prevent the deportation of illegal immigrants.
This is the norm for immigration matters. The views of immigrants are harder for politicians and journalists to access, thanks to language barriers, cultural insularity, and, for those here illegally, a desire to stay hidden. This showed up just before the 2024 election, when multiple Democrats and political analysts predicted a massive Puerto Rican blue wave because a comedian at a Trump rally called Puerto Rico an island of trash.
The predictions were all based on the politicians’ or journalists’ conversations with “community leaders,” who turned out to be political operatives rather than real community representatives.
Moral sensibilities
Finally, there’s a more philosophical difference between the minority of the country that opposes deporting illegal immigrants and the majority that favors deportation.
It’s maybe best described as a moral sensibility or a “worldview,” and it could be best demonstrated by considering a very sympathetic illegal immigrant. Consider a young couple from El Salvador who sneaked across the border 15 years ago. Since then, they married, had three children, and settled down in the neighborhood. He works a full-time job and coaches soccer. She’s a stay-at-home mother who volunteers at church.
Their community is in Texas, not El Salvador. Their children’s friends are all in Texas. The adults have very little connection to El Salvador anymore, and their children have none.
Should this couple be deported? This would require, in effect, the deportation of their children who are U.S. citizens.
For some, this is a simple question of law and order: Yes, illegal immigrants should be sent home. They broke the law. The government should enforce the law.
But the more bleeding-heart sensibility would argue, instead, that a law-abiding family that has become part of the community should be forgiven and allowed to stay. The country is not made safer by removing these immigrants.
Both of these viewpoints just seem right to the people who hold them, and there’s not much common ground from which to have a debate.
Will Democrats learn?
Now the anti-deportation side is responsible for the riots, arson, and attacks on police in Los Angeles. On this question, Democratic politicians understand that their side looks bad to normal people. Still, they put some of the blame on the law enforcement and on Trump.
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Democrats lost in 2024 in large part because their media bubble hid from them just how unpopular their positions were. On illegal immigration, and to some extent on riots, they are once again standing on unpopular ground.
Have they learned? Can they change?