Trump, the Democrats, and the Politics of Immigration
| Author | Richard Johnson |
| Published date | 01 September 2018 |
| Date | 01 September 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/2041905818796572 |
SEPTEMBER 2018 • POLITICAL INSIGHT 15
Donald Trump’s policies on
immigration have generated no
little controversy. From the ban
on immigration from Muslim-
majority countries and increased denial
of asylum seeker claims to the separation
of families who cross the border illegally
and the removal of protected status from
those brought to the United States illegally
as children, the President’s approach
represents a major shift from previous
Republicans in the White House.
Earlier Republican presidents tended to
support permissive immigration policies,
which they viewed as positive for business. In
the 1980 presidential election, Ronald Reagan
asked, ‘rather than putting up a fence, why
don’t we…make it possible for them to come
here legally with a work permit and, then,
while they’re working here and earning here,
they pay taxes here. And when they want to
go back, they can go back. Open the border
Trump, the Democrats,
and the Politics of
Immigration
While Republicans have become much more supportive of restrictive
immigration policies, Democrats have shifted to support far more
permissive immigration policies than in the recent past. Richard
Johnson assesses the electoral implications of the parties’ stances.
both ways’. As President, Reagan signed one
of the most generous amnesty laws in US
history, providing legal status to all illegal
immigrants who lacked a criminal record and
had been in the United States for at least four
years before the bill’s passage.
Reagan’s successor, George H. W. Bush,
continued this expansionary approach. In
1990, he signed a law which increased net
immigration numbers into the United States
to as many as 700,000 per year. In 2007, his
son George W. Bush attempted to pass a bill
which would have provided legal status for up
to 12 million illegal immigrants.
Republican base
Some policies supported by past Republican
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