On the third night of the Democratic National Convention four years ago, immigration was front and center. Americans have heard multiple personal stories about how Trump-era policies have disrupted the lives of immigrants and their families.
An 11-year-old girl Read a letter to Donald Trump; His mother was deported two years ago by the Trump administration. An undocumented mother recounted How she crossed the border illegally to seek better treatment for her baby daughter – “When we reached the river, I lifted her above the water and we crossed,” she said on national TV. He wasn’t the first undocumented immigrant to address the DNC, but he was the first non-Dreamer — more controversially, someone who crossed the border as an adult.
Four years later, the DNC sounds a lot different, reflecting how public opinion toward immigration in general has grown concerned about how safe the restrictions are. Gone are heartwarming testimonies from undocumented immigrants, rejection of Trump-era policies and calls for better treatment of immigrants and expansion of asylum protections. Instead, Wednesday evening’s speakers embraced tougher policies for asylum seekers, praised Joe Biden’s efforts to negotiate a bipartisan border security bill and acknowledged the changing realities of immigration politics since the pandemic began.
In other words, Democrats’ speeches on immigration and the border were vastly different than they were at the 2012, 2016, or 2020 conventions — because the reality and public sentiment have also changed drastically.
Migrant woes don’t seem to be much of a concern this year
Unlike at the GOP’s convention in Milwaukee last month, no one in Chicago this week was waving “Stop Mass Deportation” placards, or talking about “attacks” or “bloodshed” on the southern border. But the Democrats’ own right-ward shift in recent years can be easy to miss, given that party’s often extreme rhetoric over the past two decades and its consistently anti-immigrant stance.
At past party conventions, Democrats have made significant efforts to highlight the plight of young immigrants and immigrant families—be they families torn apart by immigration policy, young Dreamers struggling and succeeding in America despite being undocumented, or activists working toward immigration reform.
In 2012, for example, Benita Veliz, of San Antonio, Texas, became a visionary. First undocumented person to address National Party Political Conference — telling millions of viewers how she graduated as a top student and double majored in college before nearly getting expelled for a traffic violation. A visionary, he praised Obama’s plan to roll out deportation protections in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
four years later, Another visionary Hillary Clinton will be joined by First Lady Michelle Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders as keynote speakers at the convention. Astrid Silva say The story of coming to the United States at age 4 with her mother, climbing a raft to cross the Rio Grande, with just “a little doll.”
And 2020 is a contrast to Trump and the human suffering he caused during his presidency.
On Wednesday night, speakers balanced two messages: that Democrats don’t have the same anti-immigrant tastes as Republicans — they value diversity and believe in humane treatment of immigrants — but they understand the need for reform and stronger security. They sound like HBO’s fictional vice president VipWHO once A need is described Reform, reaffirm, and resist immigration
On Wednesday night, some dreamers got one 50-second opportunity To support Kamala Harris and push for DACA protections. And nearly every biographical clip of Harris, or biographical reference to Harris’ upbringing, centers on stories of his parents’ immigrant lives. But immigration in general was rarely embraced as wholeheartedly this week, with economic migrants seeking “a better life” rarely welcomed as at past conventions. And that’s because reality has changed.
Public sentiment is now turning sharply against all forms of immigration. As I explained earlier, the transition has been rapid but sustained:
Since 2020, the share of Americans who want to reduce all immigration levels has increased, from 28 percent in mid-2020 to 55 percent by June 2024. Gallup polling data.
Those analysts note that 2024 marks the first time since 2005 that a majority of the American public wants less immigration, and that anti-immigration sentiment is at its highest level since 2001, when the country was going through an anti-immigrant fervor. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Those changes are also happening across all sectors of the electorate. It’s not just white voters. Asada voter and esp Latino Voters are More possibilities Less immigration is wanted than in the past, and anti-immigrant sentiment is growing across all partisan groups, including among Democrats.
That changing reality also explains the DNC’s immigration programming choices
Latino Democrats tried to paint Republicans as weak on the border
Although it didn’t fall exclusively to them, a handful of Latino Democrats got the job of pushing the Democrats’ new tough-on-the-border image. California Rep. Pete Aguilar, the highest-ranking Latino in Congress, described Harris as pro-immigrant and pro-border security: “Under President Harris, we can and will do both. As a prosecutor, he took on transnational gangs and cartels. As president, he will fight for a path to citizenship.”
Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto also leaned into this message, praising Harris’ past prosecution of drug traffickers and human traffickers. And it was Bexar County, Texas, Sheriff Javier Salazar who criticized Trump for sabotaging Biden’s border deal, saying Trump “made our jobs harder.”
These lines perhaps foreshadow how Harris will view himself among moderate voters, swing voters, and less secure voters. Immigration policy and border security are among his biggest weaknesses, and Republicans have turned to misleading attacks on his role in managing diplomatic relations with Latin American countries as a way to blame him for the increase in border crossings during the Biden administration. Three years (although that surge has slowed significantly in recent months.)
Still, the direction the party was headed was clear throughout the night: Gone are the days of casting the Obama- and Clinton-era Democratic Party as an unequivocal pro-immigrant party. Differences in convention platforms Clean it up too. The 2024 party platform supports faster deportations of economic migrants and tougher asylum rules — including the ability to stop processing those asylum claims. It’s unclear whether these policies will help stem or slow the rate of future immigration, either legal or not, but for now, Democrats can report some results. Crossings have declined each month for the past five months, after the southern border faced historically high numbers of migrants, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics provided to USA Today. this week. The Department of Homeland Security attributes part of that to the administration’s tougher shelter and prevention efforts — but it’s not clear the public is yet aware of the trend.
Meanwhile, Democrats in 2024 sound very different from 2020 — when none of these drastic proposals appeared in the party’s platform.
