There’s a lot of concern that, with the rise of Donald Trump, Republicans are moving too far right on immigration. But does anyone wonder whether Democrats are moving too far left on the same issue?
First, concern about the Republican Party. “Trump’s immigration plan could spell doom for the GOP,” read a headline on a syndicated column by George Will. “Trump’s recklessness threatens GOP,” read a headline on a Charles Krauthammer column. “Donald Trump reveals the ugly side of the right,” read a headline on a piece by the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin.
Maybe they’re all right. Maybe they’re not. But put aside that argument — it’s being engaged by plenty of people these days, anyway — and consider the Democratic Party’s approach to immigration.
Start with Hillary Clinton. In a Cinco de Mayo appearance in Nevada a few months ago, Clinton staked out a policy wherein she pledged would go beyond President Obama’s already-expansive (and arguably unconstitutional) approach.
First, Clinton pledged to uphold Obama’s unilateral executive edict giving legal protection to immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children.
Second, Clinton pledged to uphold Obama’s court-challenged unilateral executive edict giving legal protection to the parents of many of those children.
“I will fight to stop partisan attacks on the executive actions that would put Dreamers … at risk of deportation,” Clinton said. “And if Congress continues to refuse to act, as president I would do everything possible under the law to go even further … and deal with some of these other issues, like the re-unification of families that were here and that have been split up.”
Third, Clinton promised citizenship to the roughly 12 million immigrants in the country illegally. “We can’t wait any longer,” she said. “We can’t wait any longer for a path to full and equal citizenship.”
And fourth, just as important as what Clinton said was what she did not say. The key to making any immigration changes, for many voters, is to increase security at the border and institute real interior enforcement; it seems likely voters would accept some combination of security and legalization. But did Clinton talk about that in her Cinco de Mayo presentation? No.
There’s no doubt Clinton has moved far to the left on immigration in the last decade. Asked about the subject during a 2003 radio interview, she said, “We’ve got to do several things and I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants. … We’ve got to do more at our borders, and people have to stop employing illegal immigrants.”
During her campaign for the White House in 2007, Clinton pledged, “I will not support driver’s licenses for undocumented people.”
And even more recently, in 2014, when there was a flood of unaccompanied minor children crossing the border into the United States illegally, Clinton said, “They should be sent back as soon as it can be determined who the responsible adults in their families are …”
All that is out the window now as Clinton, desperate to keep the Obama coalition intact for 2016, adopts many of the positions of the immigration activist groups that set the agenda on the left.
And what about Bernie Sanders, the surging second-place candidate in the Democratic race? Sanders, always aligned with the labor union movement, used to be pretty tough on immigration. He was one of the Democrats — OK, the only Democratic Socialist — who helped kill comprehensive immigration reform in 2007.
“What concerns me are provisions in the bill that would bring low-wage workers into this country in order to depress the already declining wages of American workers,” Sanders said at the time, sounding a bit like Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions today.
By 2013, Sanders voted for the Gang of Eight comprehensive reform bill, although he still expressed concerns about its effect on American jobs.
Now, running for the Democratic nomination, Sanders pledges to extend Obama’s unilateral actions and downplay security. On his campaign website, Sanders promises to “oppose tying immigration reform to the building of a border fence. Undocumented workers come to the United States to escape economic hardship and political persecution. Tying reform to unrealistic and unwise border patrol proposals renders the promise illusory for millions seeking legal status.”
There’s a lot of polling to suggest that parts of Clinton’s and Sanders’ immigration proposals are pretty far out of touch with the majority of American voters. One might even suggest the Democrats’ leftward move on the issue could threaten the party’s chances at the polls. Of course, that would require the pundits taking their eyes off Trump long enough to notice.
