What Democrats are having a hard time explaining on the issue with immigration and deportation is quotas. Trump clearly has numerical goals in mind he wants to hit; my theory is that he wants his numbers to surpass Obamas.
The issue with this is the pressure on ICE to ramp up deportations means not doing the due diligence needed to make sure we are deporting actual criminals. Under Obama, the focus was on two areas: criminals, many of which were already incarcerated and actually led to closing some prisons, and those recently arrived, like in the last few years. Yes, Obama had mistakes, yes, some families were broken up. There is no way to avoid some mistakes when you deport 4 million people.
We also have a larger issue that Trump, even in his success, caused himself: by successfully securing the border, and reducing those coming over to the lowest level in decades, he has no low hanging fruit to get those numbers he is desperate to hit. The steady stream of people coming over, catching most of them and returning them to hit some numerical goal isn’t taking place.
In their hate for all things Trump, Democrats are failing to make logical arguments the average person understands. Everyone hates quotas, we hate them when we are given a speeding ticket at the end of the month. When Democratic leaders emerge, it will be the ones that explain these issues in an intelligent way.
The average American agrees with removing illegal criminals. They also agree that those who came illegally but have demonstrated they are good citizens, and contribute to society should have a path to stay, even if that path is difficult, like a significant fine/community service/etc. But they are not ok with a quota Trump is trying to hit for no reason other than to hit it.
Newsome’s speech was a disaster, and will not help. It was more Trump bad, end of Democracy nonsense. It was exactly the message done to trigger the base, not to reach out to those watching the left talk about “mostly peaceful protests” as they see police attacked, cars on fire and looting.
The messaging is wrong. And the Democratic Party will not recover until they stop trying to fire up the base, and and instead focus on developing a better message.