
CV NEWS FEED // Polling data show that as recently as the 1990s, around the same percentage of Republicans and Democrats opposed increasing the levels of immigration to the country. Democrats then radically changed their views on the issue, with their support for increased immigration spiking in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
On Thursday, Washington Post columnist Jason Willick posted a graph to X (formerly Twitter) that showed the percentage of each party’s voters that supported increased immigration levels over the last three decades.
In 1995, roughly 5% of both Republicans and Democrats were in favor of more immigration.
During the next decade and a half, the percentage of Democrats who supported increased migration steadily rose. Meanwhile, the percentage of Republicans remained consistent over the same time period, albeit a slight increase can be observed during the mid-to-late 2000s.
By 2015, over 15% of Democrats supported more immigration – roughly triple the percentage of Republicans.
That same year, eventual President Donald Trump declared his successful first Republican bid for the White House, with a heavy emphasis on securing the nation’s southern border.
Immediately after, the percentage of Democrats who stated that they supported increasing immigration skyrocketed – more than doubling in less than five years.
The percentage of Republicans who supported more immigration, meanwhile, slightly rose.
At present, the graph shows that over 40% of Democrats support increased immigration levels, compared to around 10% for Republicans – a sharp difference from 1995.
The graph’s data were compiled by researcher Trent Ollerenshaw and the General Social Survey (GSS).
Willick also pointed to a clip from Democratic President Bill Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union address.
“All Americans … are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country,” Clinton stated at the time. “The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers.”
>> BILL CLINTON BACKS IMMIGRATION CONTROL IN NYC <<
“That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before,” Clinton noted. “We are a nation of immigrants but also a nation of laws.”
Clinton also mentioned working with Barbara Jordan, a liberal Democratic former congresswoman who was a staunch advocate for restricting immigration until her death in 1996.
One X user commented on Willick’s post, joking about the fact that many on the political left today regard Republican-backed border security measures as “radical.”
“How did Republicans become so RADICALIZED ON THIS ISSUE??!” he joked.
Hours before President Biden took to the podium to give his 2024 State of the Union address on Thursday, the Republican-controlled House passed the Laken Riley Act.
The legislation is named in honor of the University of Georgia (UGA) nursing student who was reportedly murdered on campus by an illegal Venezuelan migrant last month. The bill would require federal immigration agencies such as Immigration and U.S. Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain some criminal migrants.
As CatholicVote reported: “Thirty-seven Democrats joined all voting Republicans in support of the bill. The remaining 170 Democrats voted against it.”
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler, D-NY, explained his opposition to the bill by calling it a “partisan, political stunt.”
The influential House Democrat attacked Republicans for supporting the bill, accusing them of “target[ing] and scapegoat[ing] immigrants to score cheap political points in an election year.”
Nadler was in Congress in 1995 and was likely present during Clinton’s State of the Union address that year.
