Open-Door Policy

Being opposed to ICE and the President's initiatives on H1B visas give the impression that the Democrats are in favor of completely open borders, or a nationwide variation on the former "wet-foot, dry-foot" policy; anyone who can get into the country prior to being caught is granted indefinite leave to stay, regardless of whether their entry was legal or not. In a nutshell, Democratic contrarianism towards President Trump is pushing them to do things that imply policy positions that they may not actually hold.

If you ask many Democrats if they actually support unlimited, unrestricted immigration to the United States, the answer will be "no." But if you ask them to define the limits, many are hard-pressed to block anyone other than obviously dangerous criminals from entering.

Precisely who the constituency for expansive immigration policy is tends to be unclear... recent immigrants tend to have no problem with people having to follow the rules. Sure, there are plenty of people who would like to see the United States have no rules for who can enter, but many of those sorts are willing to enter regardless of what rules are in place; and because they're not here legally, they can't vote. There's a lot to said for compassion on poor people in other countries who would be faced with a years-long wait, if they were ever granted legal entry at all, but again, those people don't comprise a voting block. And part of the reason why Donald Trump is President again is that many people who do vote felt that not enough was being done to manage (or control, if you will) the inflow of people to the country.

This creates a de facto Democratic policy of treating ignoring entry requirements as perhaps an aggravating factor in other offenses, but as something that it can be ignored in and of itself. And that is a fairly unpopular policy. The Democratic party line can be that any willingness to enforce immigration law is simply thinly veiled racism, but again, that's not going to put another Democrat in the White House, or more of them into Congress.

While it may look as if President Trump and the current Republican Representatives and Senators are going to finally drop the straw that breaks the camel's back onto the beast any moment now, it's looked like that for quite some time, and the animal is still holding up admirably. I don't think the camel has even broken a sweat thus far. And that means that the Democrats are going to have to get out their with affirmative policy proposals that are something other than "The opposite of whatever President Trump has done this week." And that's likely going to mean telling the activist class to cool it for a while, or at least agitate for things that have some broader level of public support.