America Suddenly In Love With Immigration For No Particular Reason

Kidding! It is probably because of how we are in hell.

Photo by Kit Suman on Unsplash

We have, all of us, a few things that we thought were going to be a very good time but which in fact turned out to be a very bad time. A whole lot of people, for reasons, thought that mass deportations were going to be a great time. They were very, very angry about immigration, convinced that undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers were all violent criminals, and they voted for Donald Trump because he promised he would make them all go away.

JD Vance Encourages Supporters (And Donald Trump) To Claim Haitians Eat Pets Even Though It's A Lie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Well, now it’s looking like a whole lot of those people have changed their minds. A recent Gallup poll found that, among other things, the belief that immigration is good for the country is at an all-time high of 79 percent, up from 64 percent last year (which, may I remind you, is still actually a significant majority) — and that those who want immigration reduced are down to 30 percent, from 55 percent in 2024. That’s a pretty steep drop.

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And that’s not all! The survey also found that:

• Support for increasing the number of border agents is down to 59 percent, down from 76 percent last year.

• Only 38 percent now support deporting all undocumented immigrants, down from 47 percent last year.

• 78 percent now support “[a]llowing immigrants living in the U.S. illegally the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time” up from 70 percent a year ago (which, let’s also note, is still a supermajority).

• For Republicans only, that percentage has gone from 46 to 59. (And 71 percent support a path to citizenship for those brought here illegally as children, up from 64 percent.)

• Support for building “the wall” has gone from a majority of 53 percent to a minority of 45 percent.

• 62 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration (45 percent strongly).

Why might this be? It could be a lot of things. It could be that people are concerned that their groceries are going to get more expensive or that they realized they rely on undocumented immigrants more than they thought they did, but I think it’s because of things like this video of a man being tasered and tackled in the middle of a Walmart.

buddyhead_

A post shared by @buddyhead_

I think most people also find the idea of anyone being eaten by alligators off-putting, even if it’s just a “joke.”

I think a lot of people are just starting to feel some kind of way about seeing how hard the administration is going after people who have never committed any crimes, the conditions at these detention centers, the “joking” about feeding people to alligators, and they’re getting uncomfortable. Perhaps they thought that these people would be whisked away by magic and they’d never have to see how the sausage was made. Perhaps they simply overestimated their own bloodthirst.

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Granted, there is a very large segment of Republicans who find all of this delightful, think it is the best thing that ever happened to them, and absolutely delight in the cruelty of it all. People who are so bitter and sadistic that all they want in the world is to watch other people suffer miserably — and to know that it is being done for them. Because they are wonderful and special and Trump loves them the way their daddies never did (the same way Trump never loved his non-Ivanka children, allegedly). We can’t do anything about them, as they are bottomless wells of fear and loathing that can never be satisfied.

But the fact that there is such a thing as “too far” for at least some people is heartening.