I See a Way for Democrats to Fumble Away Their Sudden Advantage on Immigration
They’ll probably take it
Trump has gone too far with immigration enforcement. Though no-one could have guessed this, it turns out that most Americans don’t like groups of masked men roaming the streets harassing and shooting people with impunity. Of course, a third of the country is totally into it — no matter how extreme Trump’s actions get, some people have nothing to say about our rapid slide into authoritarianism other than “WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”
For the first time in ages, Democrats have a chance to say something on immigration other than “I misspoke for seven months during the 2020 Democratic Primary”. What should they say? Naturally, the same forces that made it hard for the left to say anything on immigration other than some version of “whoops” are trying to coax Democrats into fumbling away their advantage. For example, here’s Perry Bacon in The New Republic yelling “ABOLISH ICE!” and then mumbling something incoherent about what border enforcement would look like afterwards. And here’s Chris Lehmann in The Nation pushing an absolutist pro-illegal-immigration position on the grounds that the issue is “a stark question of basic human rights and basic human decency.” Trump’s political longevity becomes less perplexing when you factor in leftist factions that seem to be on a holy crusade to meet every unconscionable Trump fuck-up with an unconscionable fuck-up of their own.
At the moment, Democrats are playing a winning position. They’re holding up a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security unless Republicans accede to changes like an end to masked agents and automatic investigations of officer-involved shootings. IMHO, this is both good policy and good politics. If Democrats can convince people that it’s possible to have low grocery prices without full-blown fascism, that could be a winning message.
Still, the politics of the moment tell us little about Democrats’ long-term position on illegal immigration. Will the next Democratic president continue Trump’s crackdown but with five percent less violent thuggery, promise every illegal immigrant eternal amnesty and all the ice cream they can eat, or something in between? Usually, trying to figure out how Democrats will whiz a golden opportunity down their leg is a fun guessing game; in this case, I think it’s already possible to see how it might happen.
