The Democratic Senate Immigration Disaster

Originally published at Fox News  By Newt Gingrich

Republicans have the chance to secure a significant victory in the U.S. Senate this fall – largely because the Democrats’ radical immigration positions could lead to their catastrophic downfall.

As more and more Democrats throw their support behind so-called sanctuary cities, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and promoting open borders, more and more Americans are expressing their vehement opposition to these positions.

Most recently, in their fervor over the child detention issue, every Senate Democrat scrambled to co-sponsor Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Keep Families Together Act (partly to rebuke the president and partly to appease the growing radical wing of the Democratic party) despite the bill proposing half-baked, open-border policies that very few Americans support.

Gabriel Malor wrote an eye-opening piece for The Federalist describing how devasting the Feinstein bill would truly be for our country it were passed. Malor notes that, “Every Senate Democrat has now signed on to cosponsor a bill written so carelessly that it does not distinguish between migrant children at the border and U.S. citizen children already within the United States. The bill further does not distinguish between federal officers handling the border crisis and federal law enforcement pursuing the ordinary course of their duties.”

The bill would negatively impact virtually the entire United States because it sloppily defines its geographic scope as “at or near the port of entry or within 100 miles of the border.” As Malor pointed out, “That’s roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population. Even more live near ports of entry, including in places far from the border crisis, like Salt Lake City, Utah (nearly 700 miles from the nearest border crossing), Tulsa, Oklahoma (more than 600 miles from the nearest border crossing), and Nashville, Tennessee (nearly 600 miles from the nearest border crossing). All major U.S. metropolitan areas fall within either 100 miles of the border or are near a port of entry or both.”

A recent Harvard-Harris Poll conducted by Mark Penn (who is not Republican) clearly shows that most Americans overwhelmingly disagree with the radical Democratic immigration agenda. To illustrate just how wide this gulf is, I’ve included the below chart that describes the percentage results of Penn’s poll by issue (click the image for a larger view).

The results are clear. Sixty-four percent of registered voters said people who cross the border illegally should be sent back to their home countries. Only 36 percent said they should be allowed to stay. This result doesn’t significantly change when children are involved (61 percent to 39 percent).

Additionally, 61 percent of voters said current border security was inadequate – and 70 percent support more strict enforcement of immigration law. An astounding 84 percent of voters said sanctuary city policies should end, and 69 percent oppose the idea of abolishing ICE. These numbers show how radical and out of sync the central planks of Democratic immigration platform truly are.

Byron York with the Washington Examiner has done an excellent job of describing the disconnect between the views of radical Democrats (including the media) and those of the American people – particularly with regards to the wide American support of President Trump’s immigration policies.

I have written a strategy paper citing the work of York and Malor[will add link] that describes how Republicans must use the facts about what Americans think about immigration policy and clearly communicate how and why the Republicans are right and the Democrats are wildly wrong.

The elite media is so biased that it is (and will no doubt continue) artificially propping up an increasingly radical Democratic Party while artificially suppressing the issue popularity of the Trump team.

So, the key purpose of the fall 2018 Republican Senate campaign is to communicate how totally unacceptable the radical Democratic views are and how radically they would change America if they succeed.

For example, radical Democrats support for sanctuary cities (and any Democrat who supports sanctuary cities is a radical) is deeply unpopular. Ending sanctuary cities is an 84-16 issue. Furthermore, Americans believe sanctuary cities increase crime by 64 percent to 36 percent. This is something that the House and Senate should vote on as often as possible.

The abolition ICE movement is also a completely looney Democratic idea that is completely rejected by the American public 69 percent to 31 percent. Republicans should point out that ICE has been an important part of combatting the opioid crisis and fighting drug cartels – which is destroying American families and communities across the country. In 2017 alone, the agency seized roughly 2,400 pounds of deadly fentanyl. Democrats should be made to answer why they think dangerous drugs that are tearing American families apart should be allowed to come in the country.

Every Republican challenger should get a copy of Feinstein’s open-borders bill and carry it to every event, press conference, and debate. Democratic incumbents should be forced to explain why they agreed to cosponsor a bill that will gut our ability to enforce immigration laws when 70 percent of Americans support more stringent border enforcement.

Across the board, Republicans range from a high of 84 percent to low of 60 percent for our immigration positions. These are winning positions. The Democrats cannot win on these issues if Republicans have the courage to ignore the elite media and focus on the American people.