Column: Immigration could get Trump elected again. Here’s how Democrats keep getting it wrong

For more than 20 years, I have held one position constant when it comes to immigration policy: We should have one. The late Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas, who chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform in the 1990s, put it succinctly: “The credibility of immigration policy can be measured by a simple yardstick: People who should get in, do get in; people who should not get in are kept out; and people who are judged deportable are required to leave.” Credibility is important for any government endeavor, but it’s especially so for immigration because few issues share its capacity to sow public discontent. In colonial America, Benjamin Franklin repeatedly warned of the danger posed by unchecked German immigration, worrying that “ they will soon so outnumber us, that … we … will not in my opinion be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious.” In 1798, Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which are remembered for their assault on free speech but were driven by the fear that French and other immigrants were an enemy within. Later chapters in this old story include the Know-Nothings, all manner of panic over the Irish, the Yellow Peril and of course “replacement theory.” The same sentiments are now driving the surging prospects of far-right parties in Europe and the domestic success of Donald Trump despite — or because of — all his ugly rhetoric about “vermin” and blood “poisoning.” That’s why President Biden’s ham-fisted mishandling of the border crisis is arguably his greatest liability after his age. The editorial stance of the National Review, where I worked for two decades, was always that if responsible politicians don’t deal with immigration responsibly, irresponsible ones will exploit the issue to get elected.