Clinton’s Questionable Characterization of the GOP Candidates on Immigration

Earlier this week, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, asked to comment on Donald Trump’s anti-immigration remarks, charged that the GOP candidates “range across a spectrum of being either grudgingly welcome or hostile towards immigrants.” Clinton’s comments play perfectly into the stale narrative that the Republican Party is anti-immigrant. But a flurry of recent polls and studies, not to mention a review of the positions of most GOP contenders, suggests otherwise.

Contrary to Clinton, top Republican candidates and the Republican electorate recognize the importance of expanding legal immigration and have moderated their rhetoric on illegal immigration. Candidates Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Lindsey Graham support some version of comprehensive immigration reform. So judging the GOP by the comments of a reactionary hotel mogul is unfair. Moreover, reciting the old GOP outlook just poisons the debate on immigration and reduces the chances for bipartisan comprehensive reform.

The changing GOP position on immigration in evident in three facts: first, most Republicans denounced Trump’s anti-immigrant comments; second, only two of 16 expected-to-run GOP candidates support reducing legal immigration; and third, a flurry of recent polls show that GOP voters are definitely not anti-immigrant.

Republican candidate Chris Christie said Trump’s comments were “inappropriate and have no place in this race.” Rubio said they were “not just offensive and inaccurate, but also divisive.” Bush said Trump doesn’t represent the Republican Party and that “his views are way out of the mainstream of what Republicans think.” George Pataki, who is also in the race, tweeted that he rejected Trump’s comments. Still another candidate, Rick Perry, said Trump’s comments do not reflect the Republican party.

Only Ted Cruz and Rick Santorum expressed support for Trump, although Santorum criticized Trump’s “verbiage.”

Among the GOP hopefuls, only Santorum and soon-to-be candidate Scott Walker propose to reduce legal immigration to, in their view, protect American jobs and wages. But their position is not only contrary to economic science; it’s also unpopular with the American people.

As noted, recent polls indicate that Republican Party support for legal immigration would be well-received by voters. A June poll by ImmigrationWorks USA, a pro-immigration business group, found that only 13 percent thought that legal immigrants take jobs away from American workers, while twice that percentage thought they take only jobs that Americans don’t want.

In a poll released earlier this week, 46 percent of Iowa Republicans agreed that illegal immigrants should be required to leave the country. But 34 percent said that immigrants should stay and be offered a path to citizenship, and 17 percent said they should stay but without an option for citizenship. Therefore, a majority of Iowa Republicans believe undocumented immigrants should keep calling the U.S. home.

In a Niskanen Center blog post last week, my colleague Dave Bier found that in the last five national polls of GOP primary voters, 74 percent favored pro-immigration candidates and only 19 percent supported anti-immigrant candidates.

Likewise, Bier released a study last month that examined public-opinion polling on immigration over the last few decades. The trends were clear. GOP voters strongly support legal immigrants. In all national polls from 2001 to 2014 on the question of whether the country should admit more foreign workers, 60 percent of Republican voters said yes.

A recent poll by the firm Burning Glass found that less than 35 percent of GOP voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, early presidential caucus or primary states, oppose legal status for immigrants. In addition, the polling found that nearly 75 percent of GOP voters in 10 battleground states support legal status, with only 22 percent supporting costly deportation.

The Republican Party’s outlook on immigration has changed. The takeaway for candidates is clear: don’t give in to the small and shrinking minority in the GOP who reject immigrants. The takeaway for Congress is clearer: renew comprehensive immigration-reform talks and pass a bill to please the American people.