Donald Trump is going full-steam ahead with his immigration agenda, catering to his base with tough talk and trying to force a difficult choice on Democrats who have promised to protect immigrant communities.
Trump’s State of the Union speech was notable for its emphatic rhetoric on illegal immigration and for the significant time devoted to the topic.
The president offered little by way of an olive branch to Democrats, instead repeating an existing White House proposal and — in the single most memorable line of the night — insisting “Americans are dreamers too.”
The effort to press ahead with the hard-line approach that Trump enunciated during his 2016 campaign is backed by many people in his orbit.
“If you don’t keep a motivated base, you can’t win reelection,” said one former Trump campaign aide, who asked for anonymity to discuss the immigration issue candidly. The former staffer cited a salutary example in former President George H.W. Bush, who broke a famous campaign pledge not to raise taxes and subsequently lost his bid for a second term to Bill Clinton.
Democrats expressed outrage at Trump’s assertions, which also blamed lax immigration laws for gang violence and some terrorist attacks.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a possible 2020 presidential candidate, accused the president of “fear-mongering” in an interview with Chris Matthews of MSNBC.
Some progressive groups used even more heated language, with the left-wing People’s Action releasing a statement asserting that Trump was building his proposal to replace the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on “a bedrock of white supremacy.”
But Trump’s base has long been responsive to his hawkish positions on illegal immigration. And it is far from clear that the public at large is implacably opposed to the framework he is putting forward.
A CBS News–YouGov survey conducted in the immediate aftermath of the State of the Union address indicated that 72 percent of the people who had watched the speech favored Trump’s plans on immigration, while 28 percent were opposed.
The White House highlighted the survey, while Democrats argue that such results are of limited value, since the overall TV audience for a Trump State of the Union would be expected to lean Republican.
Other polls have consistently shown pluralities in favor of protecting “Dreamers,” as DACA beneficiaries are often called, and against building the southern border wall Trump promised during his campaign.
