Immigration ’s Popularity Is Rising Thanks to Trump

I recently reviewed Reihan Salam ’sMelting Pot or Civil War? A Son of Immigrants Makes the Case Against Open Borders.   My review is critical, but there is one major point on immigration that Salam gets right elsewhere:President Donald Trump willunderminethe cause of immigration restriction. Trump ’s uglyrhetoric from the beginning, his administration ’s casual and unnecessary cruelty in the case ofchild separations, his pandering withthe Muslim travel ban, and his consistent call for awall that will not slow down the flow of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers who turn themselves in to Border Patrol, are all potentially undermining immigration restriction.   Immigration is getting more popular.Gallup has been asking the samequestion on immigration since 1965:Thinking now about immigrants – that is, people who come from other countries to live here in the United States, in your view, should immigration be kept at its present level, increased or decreased?Since Trump was elected in 2016, the percentage of Americans who wanted increased immigration has risen by 9 percentage points from 21 percent to 31 percent (Figure 1).   Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who want less immigration has fallen from 38 percent to 31 percent.  In other words, the difference between those who want to increase immigration and those who want to decrease it currently lies within the statistical margin of error.  The percentage of t hose who want to keep immigration at the present...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs