Standing Up For Our Neighbors - A Vital Lesson From The Siege Of Minnesota

Dems need to make clear they are for reining in ICE, *and* stopping mass deportation and the expansion of the detention centers. We must stand up for our neighbors.

Happy Sunday all. If you are looking for informative discussions to dive into this holiday weekend I shared a few timely ones in yesterday’s post. Feel free to head there and dive in……

Today’s post is about one of the big lessons coming from the Trump Administration’s siege of Minnesota - that the brave people of Minnesota have put their lives on the line not just to “rein in ICE” but primarily to protect their neighbors. When ICE and DHS came to Minnesota to take people away tens of thousands of every day Minnesotans stood up for their neighbors, took to the streets, and said no. In their courageous fight for their neighbors, many legally here, something incredibly powerful, deeply American, and extraordinarily inspiring was born.

Echoing JB Pritzker’s challenge that if Trump and Miller wanted to come for the people of Illinois they would have to go through him, the people of Minnesota made it clear that if the regime wanted to come for their neighbors they would have to go through them (read this new terrific essay from Greg Sargent on the important role Govs. Newsom and Pritzker played in getting us to this moment). And this bravery, this courage, the moral power of standing for their neighbors won the day, and ICE, it appears, is retreating.

National Democrats need to learn this lesson from these early fights against DHS-ICE to inform and animate our current campaign against the regime to reform DHS. We know from data that the country wants to rein in and reform ICE, and the smart 10 point plan Dem leaders have offered will go a long way in doing so. But to win this fight, and I mean truly win it, we need to add a second piece to our narrative - we must make it clear that we are also standing up for our neighbors.

Like “reining in ICE” standing up for our neighbors - law abiding legal and undocumented immigrants - has broad support in the public now. It’s why I think we will need to make clear in the coming days that we not only want to rein in ICE but we also want to end the mass deportation campaign that is tearing up communities and families and doing incredible harm to our economy; block the expansion of the detention centers; and force DHS to stop the inhumane treatment of people they have seized, in many cases, illegally.

We need to make clear like the people of Minnesota we are standing up for our neighbors. ICE should be working with state and local law enforcement to target the criminals and leave the rest of us alone.

The American people are just as supportive of this goal as they are for “reining in ICE.” Let’s review data from the past few weeks. First some data from Navigator:

Only 27% support for removing all undocumented immigrants:

Extraordinary level of concern that ICE is targeting non-criminals:

Again, support for mass deportation lands in the mid 20s:

A recent YouGov poll also found support for deporting undocumented immigrants - mass deportation - in the 20s:

A new Yahoo/YouGov poll has similar data. However you ask the question “mass deportation” keeps polling in the 20s:

Only 27%, for instance, agree that the federal government should “round up and deport as many undocumented immigrants as possible, regardless of whether they’ve committed other crimes.” More than twice as many (60%) say the government should “deport undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes since arriving in the U.S., but create a pathway to citizenship for those who have otherwise obeyed the law.”

A new poll by the influential Democratic polling firm GBAO found support for legalization and citizenship for law-abiding undocumented immigrants at 75%, and at 65% with Trump voters:

For those new to the immigration debate this data is very consistent with 20+ years of public opinion research. There has always been broad support for tough border enforcement and keeping new arrivals out of the country; broad support for prioritizing the removal of immigrants with criminal records; and broad support for giving law-abiding immigrants already here a path for legalization and citizenship.

The 2016 Exit Poll asked whether the undocumented population should stay or go. In that election, one that Trump won, voters said 70% stay, 25% go (similar to what we are seeing now). In 2024, when Trump campaigned on mass deportation, the Exit Poll found 56% supporting legal status and 40% deportation. This finding appears to have been a high water mark for “mass deportation,” as current polling shows it far closer to the 2016 result and where most polling has been in the past 20+ years.

Here’s the question from the 2016 Exit Poll:

Here’s the question from the 2024 Exit Poll (There is no poll I am aware of in the last 21 years of this debate where any version of “mass deportation” received majority support”

It has been the position of the Democratic Party since “comprehensive immigration reform” was introduced by Ted Kennedy and John McCain in 2005 that we wanted law-abiding undocumented immigrants to be offered legal status and a path to citizenship. We have rejected mass deportation, and championed a humane and practical path for resolving the issue, one that has always had broad public support.

And I guess is my final point. What I’ve been struck by having been in this debate for all these 21 years since comprehensive immigration reform was first introduced, is that a majority of Americans always approached this issue from a practical and humane - dare I say liberal - standpoint. Mass removal was always seen as impractical and inhumane, and never garnered significant support. Depending on the poll the percentage of Americans who strongly backed the removal of undocumented immigrants, and who had strong racial animus towards immigrants - the core of Trumpism in many ways - clocked in between 15 and 25 percent. In current polling mass deportation keeps coming back, however you ask the question, in the 20s, and struggling to get majority support even with Trump voters.

We have all read the stories of Republicans this past year, when seeing their own neighbors taken away and communities ripped apart, saying something along the lines of “I thought they were going to get rid of the criminals and not come after good people who live here, are raising families here and work hard. I support the removing of criminals but I don’t support this.”

The restrictionist movement that Stephen Miller arose from was so aware that of the lack of public support for “mass deportation” that they moved away from it 15-16 years ago, and came up with “self-deportation,” something Mitt Romney championed in his 2012 Presidential run. It sounds better and more humane than “mass deportation” but as we are learning, and as Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, so eloquently explained to us in our recent discussion, “self-deportation” requires extraordinary levels of violence, terror, and inhumanity for it to work. The horror of the terror regime, the inhumanity of the detention centers, the violence and fear, is causing people to “self-deport” now. Throwing people into these horrible places is core to their strategy. Which is we must fight it all, and do what the people of Minnesota did, and stand up for our neighbors.

Listen to this local news report from here in Washington, DC about a former DHS employee talking about the inhumane conditions in the detention center where he used to work. This is shocking stuff:

Finally, we must stop “mass deportation” for we know from history that when a campaign of mass dehumanization begins it can lead to atrocities; to killing; to an expansion of the “out” group to include political opponents, journalists, and any one who opposes the regime. Here in the US this is no longer a hypothetical, or something that could happen. It has already happened. Don Lemon and four other journalists were arrested, and “detained.” Last week the regime tried and failed to arrest and “detain” two US Senators and four Members of the House who challenged them, something we discussed with one of those six, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, earlier this week. They are now trying to “detain” not just “illegals” but journalists and US Senators and Members of the House. We are here now, and we must understand that if these detention centers get built they will get filled - with all of us.

For as we’ve learned from history, and the people of Minnesota, when we stand with our neighbor we are really standing for all of us. For the loss of rights for any person is a loss of rights for all.

Let’s end with the text of a few Amendments in our Bill of Rights. These are not suggestions, or recommendations. They are our unalienable rights, one previous generations of Americans - and Renee Good and Alex Pretti - fought and died for:

If you want to give to our great candidates, or watch interviews with them, head back to yesterday’s post. I’ve run out of space today……..

Keep working hard, and let’s commit together today to be as courageous and brave as the people of Minnesota, and commit to stand up for our neighbors as they have done. For when we stand up for our neighbors we are really standing up for all of us - Simon