Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen argues that President Trump is a strong supporter of legal immigration. In his column this week, Thiessen quotes Trump as being unambiguous on the issue:
So I [Thiessen] asked Trump: Is he a strong supporter of legal immigration? “I am,” [Trump] said. “We need people.”
Mr. Thiessen offers as evidence a “little noticed” promise Trump has made to “offer permanent residency to every foreign student who graduates from a U.S. university.” Thiessen writes that Trump’s “entrepreneurial view of immigration” “is true to his roots” as the son of entrepreneurial German and Scottish immigrants.
Why, then, does President Trump present himself as anti-immigrant? Thiessen, my colleague at AEI, answers:
That’s clearly a reason Trump rarely talks about legal immigration on the stump. He knows it isn’t popular with his base, and that many Americans are not open to expanding legal immigration. They won’t be as long as the country is in the midst of the worst border crisis since the Mexican-American War.
I’m not sold. There are five reasons to be skeptical of the view that Trump is a strong supporter of legal immigration.
First, Mr. Trump’s record as president. To wit, and among others:
- Trump advanced the RAISE Act of 2017, which sought to cut in half the number of green cards issued by the United States. Trump’s support for the RAISE Act — which he sought to enact for years — is direct evidence that his goal as president was to substantially reduce the number of legal immigrants in the United States.
- The Trump administration engaged in many efforts to make it harder for immigrants to legally enter the country, including denying green card and visa applications to immigrants with low incomes or who were likely to earn low incomes, denying visa applications unless migrant applicants could prove that they would have health insurance in the U.S., nearly doubling the fees for green card holders applying to become citizens, and introducing fees on asylum applications.
- In 2018, Trump considered attempting to end birthright citizenship, despite the 14th Amendment’s citizenship guarantee.
- In 2017, Trump announced that he was canceling President Obama’s DACA Executive Order, which allowed around 800,000 young adults to work legally in the U.S. despite having been brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Second, Trump’s obvious enthusiasm for restricting immigration. Two examples:
- As president, Trump pursued the horrific and inhumane policy of separating immigrant children from their parents in an effort to deter migrants from illegally entering the United States, including those applying for asylum. Several thousand families were severed as a result of this policy. As of 2021, after Trump left office, several hundred families had yet to be reunited — parents and young children, likely lost to each other forever.
- On his eighth day in office, Trump signed Executive Order 13769, which barred citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days. This was presented at the time by administration officials as a first step towards a broader and more permanent ban.
Third, Trump’s vice presidential candidate, Ohio Senator J. D. Vance, has doubled down on describing Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, as “illegal aliens” even though they are legal residents. If Trump is a strong supporter of legal immigration, then why hasn’t he corrected Vance?
Fourth, Trump’s promise to enact the “largest deportation operation” in history will likely have a chilling effect on legal immigration. If Trump is a strong supporter of legal immigration, then why is he seemingly unconcerned about this potential consequence of such an expansive deportation effort?
Fifth and finally, the linear nature of time. The argument that Trump hides his strong support for legal immigration because it won’t be popular with the GOP base “as long as the country is in the midst of the worst border crisis since the Mexican-American War” must contend with the fact that Trump’s record of restricting immigration and of demonizing immigrants long predates the Biden-era surge in net immigration.
On the broader issue: I wrote in NR in 2022:
The optimal amount and composition of immigration to the United States can be debated, but nat-pops — intellectuals, pundits, elected leaders — often go further, demonizing immigrants. Trump himself is as guilty as anyone, but he is far from alone. Hanging a “no immigrants need apply” sign on the Statue of Liberty diminishes America’s status as the preferred destination for a great many of the world’s most talented, ambitious, risk-tolerant, and hardworking people. They start businesses at a higher rate than native-born workers, and new businesses hire a disproportionate share of workers.
I maintain that the optimal number of green cards and visas the U.S. issues each year is a subject on which reasonable people of good will can disagree. Trump’s record makes clear where he stands on that question: He does not want immigration levels to increase — legal or illegal.
The former president’s record on immigration also contains dark and disturbing chapters — and the promise that, if returned to the White House, there will be more dark and disturbing days to come.