You don't satisfy anti-immigrant sentiment by touting your very sensible bipartisan plan to be very tough on immigrants indeed. You satisfy it by going on TV and being a big racist, though that doesn't even satisfy it, it just feeds it.I was on an MSNBC panel last year when Republicans rejected Biden's bipartisan immigration compromise, and the liberal guests were genuinely convinced it was going to seal Trump's defeat in November. Never made any sense to me
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) January 31, 2025
People tout polls saying even dem-leaning people thought immigration was an important issue, but this is mostly because their leaders (Democrats) went on TV and agreed it was.
Generally you don't beat conservatives on their home field, and Dems have been insisting they can my whole life.
People might have "legitimate concerns" about immigration. It is a genuine policy question and reasonable non-racist people can argue about the details (love or hate immigration, our system is a fucking mess!). But once it becomes a live cable news issue all of that is out the window.