COMMENTARY: Democrats give Donald Trump an opening on immigration

President Donald Trump certainly knows how to direct attention where he wants it. When he raised the idea of issuing an executive order to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, it became a top news story. Because of these remarks, and other provocative comments from members of his party about immigration, the change in Republican attitudes on the issue since George W. Bush’s pro-immigration presidency is obvious to all.

But there has been a major, if lower-profile, shift on the Democratic side as well. You can see it in the polls. In 2005, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found Democrats evenly divided about immigration, with 45 percent saying it strengthened the country and 44 percent saying it weakened it. By 2017, a huge 81 percent majority said it strengthened the country and only 16 percent dissented.

Both conviction and strategy propelled the Democratic change. As conservative Democrats have become conservative Republicans, there were fewer and fewer voters and politicians inside their coalition inclined toward restraint.

Many Democrats became convinced, as well, that a strong pro-immigration stand could help them win elections because it would appeal to Hispanics, a growing share of the electorate. The white working-class voters whom that stand might alienate were, in contrast, a shrinking share.

Democrats may, however, have moved too far for their own good. The public still shows some ambivalence. Only a minority of Americans wants an increase in immigration levels.

While most Americans favor granting legal status to illegal immigrants who have put down roots and behaved well here, some members of that majority fear that a continuing refusal to enforce the law means that one amnesty will be followed by more. Americans are also open to combining an amnesty with some of the changes that Trump wants, such as ending the visa lottery designed to increase diversity.

Democrats also seem to be failing to make the favorable trade between the white working class and Hispanics that they had expected. For some voters, the new rhetoric, which emphasizes the harshness of deportation and downplays the necessity of enforcement, signals indifference to the rule of law and to their opinions. The abandonment of the old, more balanced approach has lent credibility to Trump’s claim that Democrats favor “open borders.”

The president has used the opening Democrats have given him to push for policies that are also out of step with public opinion. Most Americans do not approve of his job performance on immigration. Even more disliked the separation of families at the border. Support for birthright citizenship seems to have risen in recent years.

The debate earlier this year over extending legal status to people who came here illegally as minors showed the costs of this polarization. Trump demanded that a wish list of restrictionist policies, including a cut in legal immigration, be included in any deal. Influential Democrats balked at coupling an amnesty with any enforcement measures.

The public seems to want immigration policies that are hard-headed without being hard-hearted. Neither of our political parties, at the moment, seems interested in offering them.

Ramesh Ponnuru is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.