Republicans Are Playing With Fire On Immigration

Recently, the president announced he would be using executive action to solve a serious problem with how undocumented immigrants are treated -- mainly the separation of families when some in those families are either citizens or legal immigrants. The president said he would prevent the deportation of those who had been here for 5 years, and who had family members living in this country.

The chart above shows the percentage of undocumented immigrants his executive action would affect. About 13.4% of undocumented immigrants were already protected from deportation through the program called DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). The president's action would protect another 34.8% -- leaving 51.8% of undocumented immigrants still subject to deportation.

The Republicans in Congress hit the roof though. They have been blocking any action on immigration reform for several years now, and they were incensed that the president (for whom they have an abiding and unreasonable hatred) would finally bypass them and take unilateral action. They claim the president exceeded his authority, and even passed a resolution in the House condemning it.

The Republican outrage plays well to their teabagger base (who don't want any reforms, but only deportations), but I don't think it's playing as well as they had hoped with the population at large. They had hoped, through their outrage, to get most of the public behind them -- but as these numbers from a recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute shows, the country seems to be split over the president's action. Only 45% disapprove of the president's action, while 50% approve (and 5% are unsure what to think).

Now that may sound like nearly half of Americans agree with the Republican position on immigration, but that is not really true. Many of those opposing the president's action don't oppose reform -- they just wish it could have been accomplished through compromise between the parties and the president.

As the charts below show (from the same PRRI survey), belief that our immigration system is broken continues to grow (and currently rests at a whopping 71% of the population). And a substantial majority of the population (and every demographic group, including Republicans) believe those who have family in this country legally, and who have been here for 5 years themselves, should be allowed to stay.

That is not the position staked out by congressional Republicans. In fact, it is just the opposite of their position. That makes me believe the Republicans are currently playing with fire on immigration -- and if they don't start to modify their position, they could quickly turn the population against them (which could be disastrous for 2016). They won control of Congress in the last election, but they didn't get a mandate to impose unpopular policies on the country.