Democrats have an immigration crisis

In late July 2024, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took to the stage in support of then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, with a dazzling message: Republicans are “weird.”

In November, “weird” won, sealing the election for Donald Trump with record support from groups historically loyal to Democrats.

The rightward shift in the electorate from 2020 to 2024 wasn’t necessarily because Republicans suddenly got good at inspiring confidence in moderate or uncommitted voters.

It can be explained with one simple phrase: Republicans are “weird,” but Democrats are crazy.

‘Crazy’ policies, positions cost votes

Democrats have taken crazy positions on some issues in the last several years that have cost them a lot of political support from people who might not otherwise be keen to vote Republican. Take gender identity, which I write about frequently. Most voters think men competing on women’s sports teams and kids being encouraged to “transition” to the other sex is … well, crazy. Embracing that did not bode well for Democrats in 2024.

As we also learned in 2024, most voters think it’s pretty crazy for illegal immigration to proceed unchecked, with illegal immigration and border security a top concern for many voters.

Leaders in California apparently haven’t figured that out, instead opting for more crazy on the issue that affects Americans nationwide. Crazy reached a flashpoint in the Los Angeles area earlier this month when protesters began confronting agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement who were conducting immigration raids at several L.A. locations.

Protests spin out of control

It escalated quickly. On Friday, June 6, a group of protesters attempted to break into the Roybal Federal building in downtown L.A. Others erected makeshift barriers to block ICE vehicles transporting detainees from leaving the already vandalized building, according to footage captured by news outlets including local station KTTV.

On June 7, President Donald Trump called up troops from the California National Guard, typically a task for a state governor, but one that federal law allows the President to undertake if the unrest hinders the execution of the law and the governor fails or is unable or unwilling to call in the Guard themselves.

If California Gov. Gavin Newsom had already put the Guard on standby, nobody knew it. Yet local law enforcement, according to the L.A. police chief, was "overwhelmed as far as the number of people out there engaged in this type of activity and the type of things that they're doing.” That included shooting commercial grade fireworks at officers, which could get people killed.

As far as Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass were concerned, Trump was to blame for stoking the inflammation by sending in the Guard.

On June 8, protesters set several self-driving Waymo electric robo-taxis on fire. With its vehicles totally engulfed in flames, the company opted to suspend service. The following day, Bass denied that her city was out of control, insisting during a televised interview that the protest activity was limited to “a few streets downtown.”

(In that case, someone should have mentioned that out of LA’s hundreds of neighborhoods, the January wildfires that caused over $100 billion in property loss only impacted “a few.”)

An Oscar-worthy performance

On June 12, Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem held a press conference to update the media on the protests and the enforcement operations. While she was speaking, California Sen. Alex Padilla disrupted the secretary and was forcibly removed by federal agents. Padilla had not been wearing his Senate pin and was not recognizable to the agents who intercepted him as he advanced toward Noem while she spoke. He resisted while agents removed him to the hallway, where they muscled him to the floor and briefly handcuffed him.

That incident afforded Padilla a dramatic speech later on the Senate floor. But being a sitting U.S. senator does not give one the right to aggressively approach a cabinet member in already-tense situations. No way, José.

Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theatre and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem.

Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’… https://t.co/5TGxrRZ2Ex

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 12, 2025

The madness started not because federal immigration enforcement came in to inflict terror on whole communities, but because they were sent in to do their job, which other people — illegally, purposely and even violently — tried to impede without regard for who the officials were attempting to remove or how much of a threat those people posed to the community.

Backgrounds of border-crossers vary

Anti-ICE advocates point out that over half of the 722 arrested during the first 10 days of June had no criminal history. (Other than residing in the country without authorization, which, yes, is a criminal offense.)

The same can’t be said for the rest. Others arrested have convictions and serious jail time for crimes such as shooting up a high school graduation party, distribution of heroin and cocaine, and even a 37-year sentence for forcible sexual penetration with a foreign object and assault with intent to commit rape.

People call them the “worst of the worst.” And most everybody — even Bass, Newsom and Padilla — should be agreeable to deporting foreigners who come to our country and commit acts such as those.

But Bass, Newsom, the demonstrators aren’t calling for ICE to tailor operations to the worst of the worst. They’re calling for ICE to get out entirely, surely knowing full well that complete non-enforcement means those worst will likely stick around and potentially commit God knows what other crimes.

Something even crazier happened last week in Colorado, another Democrat-controlled sanctuary state. So-called immigration advocates tipped off a Salvadoran national to the presence of law enforcement, allowing Jose Reyes Leon-Deras, who is wanted in Italy for child rape, to flee and evade arrest.

Prohibited solutions pave way for more severe action

Ironically, one way to lessen instances of ICE raids would be for local law enforcement to notify ICE when someone without legal status is taken into custody for a separate crime. The arrangement would offer mutual benefit.

But California officials can’t legally alert the feds about someone eligible for removal. California’s sanctuary state law, passed in 2018, prohibits it. California can block its own officials from helping, but it can’t stop the federal government from enforcing federal law.

The more hostile the reception, the less surprising it should be if the federal government appears to see no choice but to go full throttle with enforcement.

Trump’s struggle is not Democrats’ triumph

Enforcement itself isn’t necessarily reflecting well on Trump. Some polling shows that more Americans disapprove than approve of ICE raids and the president’s handling of the protests. But a hit to Trump’s approval rating — a likely occurrence on any day ending in “y” — hardly equals a win for Democrats.

Polling also shows that even amid the L.A. protests, immigration is Trump’s strongest policy issue, one of the few (if not the only) on which he has a net positive approval rating. The shift toward Republicans on immigration continues — driven, perhaps surprisingly, by legal immigrants who swung from favoring Democrats by 32 points in 2020 to choosing Republicans by eight in 2024, a huge 40-point shift.

No group has become more hawkish on immigration & shifted to the GOP than immigrants.

Immigrant voters
-Trust more on immigration in 2020: Dem +32 pt to Now: GOP +8 pt
-Net fav of immigrants here illegally: +23 pt in '20, -6 pt in '24
-Trump's vote: 36% in '16 to 47% in '24! pic.twitter.com/YebaSvfL7D

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) June 10, 2025

Among those same immigrants, attitudes toward those living here without authorization are turning chilly. In 2020, immigrant voters viewed noncitizen migrants positively by 23 points. That view has reversed sharply, now showing negative immigrant views of noncitizen migrants by a net 6 points.

It is crazy how Democrats have turned a deaf ear to those voters. And it’s hurting those who they think they are helping.

Democrats throw away support

Pew Research from last year estimated that 11 million foreign nationals were living in the U.S. without authorization in 2022, equal to about 3.5% of the population. Many arrived during the presidency of Joe Biden (or whoever was holding the autopen.) They came the way they did because the door was left wide-open for them to do so.

Most were innocent people experiencing hardship in their home countries who came to the U.S. seeking a better life. But many were not. And as long as the threat they pose is ignored, those who came for a better life will be viewed with the same contempt and distrust as the drug traffickers and gang members who walked in alongside them. It is utterly crazy — not to mention sad — that Democrats seem uninterested in drawing a line between the two.

Those who are able to separate the drug traffickers from the farmworkers know that deporting all of the millions residing here without authorization would have a host of harsh consequences. Mass deportations aren’t the desire of every conservative — including this one.

But to ignore the problems on the table is crazy — and Democrats keep choosing crazy. If they don’t wise up, voters might opt again for Republicans who are supposedly so weird.

Only one of those Republicans is truly weird. And according to voters in 2024, his weird was still better than Democrats’ crazy.

Comments: 319-398-8266; althea.cole@thegazette.com