{"id":5315,"date":"2025-06-16T23:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T06:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovecloud.xyz\/?p=5315"},"modified":"2025-06-16T23:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T06:01:17","slug":"immigration-protests-put-democrats-in-tricky-territory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovecloud.xyz\/?p=5315","title":{"rendered":"Immigration protests put Democrats in tricky territory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nationwide protests against President Trump\u2019s <\/a>crackdown on immigration are putting Democrats in tricky political territory ahead of the high-stakes midterms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids roiled Los Angeles and prompted Trump to call in the National Guard despite California\u2019s objections, protests cropped up this week in cities big and small, thrusting to the fore what has been a winning issue for Republicans in recent elections.\u00a0

While many in the party, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom <\/a>(D), are using the moment to hammer Trump on executive overreach, some also see the controversy as a key opening for Democrats to define themselves on immigration, where the GOP has held the advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDemocrats have been so untrusted to handle this issue, in such a deep hole, that unless they reestablish themselves as trusted folks to handle it, they\u2019re not going to be able to take advantage of any chaos or softening [poll numbers] that\u2019s happening with Trump,\u201d said Lanae Erickson, senior vice president for social policy and politics at the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, who won the White House last fall with promises\u00a0to \u201cseal\u201d the border<\/a>\u00a0and kick-start\u00a0day<\/a>\u2013<\/a>one deportations<\/a>, has been implementing an aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration in his second term. ICE arrests have topped 100,000 under Trump so far, the\u00a0White House announced<\/a>\u00a0last week, and border czar Tom Homan said workplace immigration enforcement is set to\u00a0\u201cmassively expand\u201d<\/a>\u00a0amid the pushback.

Protests broke out June 6 after ICE raids in Los Angeles, prompting Trump to call in National Guard troops and Marines, as well as spurring on similar demonstrations<\/a> in other cities<\/a>. More were planned for this weekend<\/a>, though not all are specific to immigration, and set to coincide with Trump\u2019s massive military parade in Washington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demonstrators have largely been peaceful, but Republicans have seized on scenes of chaos \u2014 including a viral clip of a figure brandishing a Mexican flag<\/a> atop a vehicle amid flames \u2014 to support long-standing claims that Democrats are weak on immigration and crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMy party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings and assaulting law enforcement,\u201d Sen.\u00a0John Fetterman\u00a0<\/a>(D-Pa.)\u00a0pointed out<\/a>\u00a0on the social platform X this week.\u00a0

As a result, blue state leaders in California and elsewhere have been walking a balance beam<\/a> between supporting the right to protest and condemning any violence, while also navigating debate on issues that have long been weak points for the party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis whole situation is doing something Trump has been very good at in his elections, which is to smash together immigration and crime and make it seem like Democrats don\u2019t care about addressing either of those problems,\u201d Erickson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it seems like Democrats are letting [lawbreakers] do that with impunity and only criticizing Trump, I think that that\u2019ll really undermine our trust with American voters.\u201d

Meanwhile, some recent polls have suggested a softening of approval for Trump\u2019s immigration handling as the ICE raids make headlines<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Quinnipiac poll<\/a> released this week had Trump 11 points underwater on the issue, compared with 5 points underwater in April. AP-NORC polling<\/a> last week had him 7 points underwater, compared with 2 points last month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Democrats can avoid playing into the idea of the party being soft on crime and border security, and use this moment to unify their messaging on immigration policy, they could make critical inroads ahead of the next election, argued Democratic strategist Maria Cardona.\u00a0

\u201cPart of the problem for Democrats in the last election was that we didn\u2019t talk about [immigration] enough, and we didn\u2019t define ourselves. \u2026 We gave Republicans a huge opening to weaponize it against us, and they took it,\u201d Cardona said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the growing protests present a \u201cterrific opportunity\u201d for Democrats to lean in, Cardona said, pointing to the protests across the country as \u201cproof that Trump\u2019s approach on this is failing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New polling<\/a>\u00a0on key 2026 battleground districts from the progressive group Way to Win and the firm Impact Research, conducted just before the protests, found that Trump was \u201cthe strongest and most trusted voice\u201d on immigration issues, with congressional Democrats a whopping 58 points in the negative, compared with their Republican counterparts\u2019 minus 11 points.\u00a0

But there were \u201csignificant openings\u201d for Democrats, researchers said. Most voters said Trump and Republicans have \u201cgone too far\u201d in their handling of immigration, and there was a 6-point gap between voters\u2019 support for GOP immigration policies and the way that those policies have been carried out and enforced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImmigration was not a winning issue for Democrats last cycle. That\u2019s true \u2026 and certainly, remaining silent on the issue didn\u2019t help. So when Trump made his whole campaign a campaign that once again scapegoated immigrants \u2026 and there\u2019s no pushback, or if the pushback stays on his turf, making it a story about linking immigration to criminality only, then we lose,\u201d Tory Gavito, president of Way to Win, told The Hill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDemocrats need to remember that public opinion can shift, and Democrats have a role in shifting public opinion by making a clear argument about what they believe in and why,\u201d Gavito said.

When respondents in the survey were presented with messaging that suggested Trump and Republicans\u2019 immigration enforcement signals a threat to citizens\u2019 rights, his approval on immigration dropped 10 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe immigration policy battlefield is a challenging one for Democrats, it truly is. But if you walk away from the battle, you\u2019re letting the other side play alone, and that\u2019s how they win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, experts say the protests also pose a prime chance for Democrats to knock Trump for executive overreach and an abuse of power, even if they can\u2019t win the argument on immigration.\u00a0

\u201cThe risk attached to the current protests over Trump\u2019s immigration raids is that Democrats will again be painted as \u2018soft on crime,\u2019 which requires that the immigrants being rounded up are overwhelmingly guilty of some serious criminal offense. Clearly this is not the case, but the administration and its allies are putting out tons of disinformation,\u201d said Wayne Cornelius, director emeritus of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego and a former immigration adviser to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg\u2019s and former President Biden\u2019s campaigns, in an email to The Hill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe potential opportunity for Democrats \u2026 is that the administration will overreach, causing widespread economic disruptions and backlash in the communities into which long-staying immigrants have become integrated.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsom has been among the leading voices\u00a0messaging\u00a0along those lines<\/a>, casting Trump\u2019s moves in California as an existential fight for democracy that could quickly impact the rest of the country.

\u201cThis is about all of us. This is about you,\u201d Newsom said this week. \u201cCalifornia may be first \u2014 but it clearly won\u2019t end there. Other states are next. Democracy is next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complex conversations about how Democrats should approach immigration and border security come after the topics were seen as defining factors<\/a> in their 2024 losses, and as the party looks toward a high-stakes midterm cycle next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cImmigration is quite possibly the wedge issue of this season for Democrats. If they swing too far in one direction, they will be painted and seen as anti-order on behalf of non-Americans. \u2026 If they swing too far in the other direction, they will be seen as complicit in the destruction of our democracy,\u201d said Democratic strategist Fred Hicks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to connect this to larger issues with the Trump administration,\u201d Hicks said. \u201cThis can\u2019t be about immigration alone, or Democrats run the risk of losing the projected advantage in 2026.\u201d

Reprinted from The Hill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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