Illegal Immigration Front and Center of GOP Race

The Republican Primary race for President was supposed to be a low-key, grinding, policy heavy and uneventful affair.  Just two months ago, the crowded field of governors, senators, and a few outsiders wasn’t making many waves.

Donald Trump’s disjointed announcement for President was not taken seriously by the Republican Party or almost anyone else.

That has all changed.  Trump’s brash pronouncements about politicians, illegal aliens, and other off-the-cuff remarks were seen by political insiders as evidence of a quick, Donald Trump implosion.  So far, the political brains in the party have declared Trump dead many times, on his initial comments on Mexican illegal immigrants, his John McCain insult, his “disastrous” debate performance and most recently his “bleeding” remarks regarding debate moderator Megyn Kelly.

But a funny thing happened.  Trump’s poll numbers have stayed steady at the top of the heap of seventeen candidates with 25 percent in recent polling, well ahead of his nearest rivals at 10-12 percent.  Just as interesting is that after the first series of debates, Trump leads with two other outsiders in second and third, Dr. Ben Carson and Senator Ted Cruz.

Republican consultants and talking heads are in a dither.  Establishment candidates Jeb Bush and Scott Walker watched their early polling leads evaporate into single digits.

So what do we make of the current Donald Trump phenomena?  His detractors have said that Trump is not talking about issues, that he is all bluster and bad hair.  But the harder they attack Trump, the stronger his polling numbers have gotten.   But here is what the Washington consultants and pundits are failing to understand.  Trump IS talking about issues, issues that are striking a cord with millions of Americans who feel ignored by both the political parties and their government.

One of those issues is illegal immigration.  Trump proposes building a wall along our Southern border with Mexico and enforcing our existing immigration laws.  He supports deporting anyone in the country illegally.  Even in the heat of constant criticism, he has refused to budge or be bullied away from his position.

While there is certainly room for criticism on the practical implementation of these ideas, recent polling data from Rasmussen bolsters Trump’s border wall proposal as most Americans support it!  Probably the most significant concept of Trump’s immigration position is that any new policy must “improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.”

Clearly Trump is taking aim at the demand for more H-1B work visas for technology companies that have been laying off American Tech workers to make room for lower paid immigrant tech workers.  Trump is also talking plainly about entry level jobs for young Americans who have seen those opportunities deteriorate over the last decade as an influx of low-skilled workers have come across our borders.

Trump is the only candidate who has put an immigration policy prescription squarely in front of Republican voters, and so far, they like it.  Governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio have watched as their poll numbers are sinking, in part because of their current and prior support for what many Americans consider “amnesty.”

Now Donald Trump may very well implode as so many hope that he will.  But it won’t happen because he is politically incorrect.  It is that very political incorrectness that ingratiates him to a large portion of the Republican base, independents and some Democrats.  Trump makes no bones about how he feels or what he thinks.  He doesn’t couch his words like the savvy politicians in the race.  If you don’t like what his positions are or how he states them, well “that’s just too bad.”  Trump doesn’t care.

Now that’s an attitude that hasn’t existed in a politician since Ronald Reagan.  Voters are finding it rather refreshing.