Markos Moulitsas: GOP loses on immigration

With Republicans on the wrong side of public opinion on immigration, and with a president apparently set to fix a broken system via executive order, GOP obfuscations, venom and vitriol have kicked into high gear. 

Last week, chief xenophobe Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) betrayed a breathtaking lack of comprehension, writing in Politico, “On Election Day, Americans roared in protest against the President’s open-borders extremism. They rallied behind candidates who will defend the rule of law and put the needs of American workers and families first.” 

{mosads}He then cited the supposed evidence for his claim that Americans spoke strongly against immigration reform: “Exit polls were unequivocal. More than 3 in 4 voters cited immigration as an important factor in their vote, believed that U.S. workers should get priority for jobs, and opposed the President’s plans for executive amnesty.”

Setting aside the fact that voter turnout was an abysmal 36 percent and hardly representative of any American majority, the fact is, even the heavily Republican electorate was strongly supportive of immigration reform, to the extent they even cared about it. 

Asked which of four issues was most important to the country in exit polling, only 14 percent chose “illegal immigration,” compared to the economy (45 percent) and healthcare (25 percent). Only “foreign policy” rated worse, at 13 percent. 

But asked what should happen to “illegal immigrants working in U.S.,” the numbers weren’t even close — 57 percent chose legalization, compared to just 39 percent who want them deported. One could even say that the exit polls were unequivocal. Rather than “roaring in protest against the President’s open-borders extremism,” even this red-tinted electorate agrees with the president, including more than a third of Republican voters. 

That’s hardly surprising in light of public polling on the issue. The real extremists are the xenophobes. 

Nevertheless, Republicans are threatening President Obama with all manner of repercussions if he follows through with executive orders, accusing him of “poisoning the well” (as if anyone has been able to drink from that well since the day the president was first elected — how do you poison a well full of cyanide?). In fact, were Obama to take steps toward legalization, he would be doing nothing that hasn’t already been done by those wacky extremist presidents before him, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Reagan signed an order that prohibited the deportation of the minor children and spouses of newly legalized immigrants. And Bush signed an executive order protecting another 1.5 million immigrants from deportation under a “family fairness” program that would make the modern GOP retch. If and when Obama acts unilaterally on reform, it won’t be without precedent, and it won’t be unwelcome. 

As the public polling indicates, and as the exit polls from actual voters confirm, America is willing and ready for immigration reform. Obama might not be able to deliver truly comprehensive reform via executive order, but he can at least get us part of the way there. And if Republicans ever decide to listen to the American people and pursue sane and sound public policy, then they can put full reform back on the agenda. 

Until then, it is Republicans who are on the losing side of the immigration issue. And no matter how loudly they scream, it turns out that America just isn’t that xenophobic after all. 

Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos.