A new Poll by Harvard-Harris shows the challenges for Democrats on Immigration policies. For example, Sanctury Cities are overwhelmingly unpopular:
An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that cities that arrest illegal immigrants for crimes should be required to turn them over to federal authorities.
The survey shows that President Trump has broad public support in his effort to crack down on sanctuary cities.
A Harvard-Harris poll provided exclusively to The Hill found that 80 percent of voters say local authorities should have to comply with the law by reporting to federal agents the illegal immigrants they come into contact with.
Local Government and businesses disobeying or selectively enforcing Immigration Laws is not popular. Donald Trump centered his campaign messaging around Immigration and Deportations and unfortunately, there's not a lot of sympathy among the American people for Deportations of Illegal Immigrants. So we’re on the wrong side of this issue in terms of Public opinion.
The solution for Dems in my opinion is to focus more on Immigration Reform legislation and less on defending Sanctuary Cities. Anytime we’re advocating disobeying or not enforcing the Law, we’re at a disadvantage.
The more productive approach is to propose changes to Immigration Laws (i.e. amnesty, temporary worker programs etc).
I’m of the opinion that Immigrants, legal and undocumented, are a Net Benefit to our nation’s economy.
Once we get past the objections to Laws not being enforced, it's easier to promote Immigration Reform and the Net benefits of immigration.