Keller: Poll suggests attitudes toward immigration may be changing. What's driving the shift?
The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.
By his own account, Donald Trump's hard line on immigration was a key to both of his successful presidential runs. But new polling suggests public attitudes toward immigration may be changing.
"I think we've done very well on immigration," says the president, and there's no doubt about it, the flood of migrants at our southern border has abated, with Border Patrol arrests down 93% over the past year.
But while there is wide approval of that progress, it has opened the door for a remarkable shift in public attitudes toward immigration.
According to, 79% of those surveyed now say immigration is a good thing for the country, a jump of 15 points over a year ago, while the percent saying it's a bad thing has collapsed to 17%, a record low for the Gallup survey.
What's driving the shift?
And while it's no surprise that Democrats continue their traditional support for immigration, favorable views are up 14% among independents and a whopping 25% among Republicans. What's driving this attitudinal shift?
It seems public attention has shifted from the border to the president's policies toward immigrants already here. Street protesters aren't the only ones upset over ICE raids, with Mr. Trump acknowledging complaints from farmers and other business owners.
Here at home and elsewhere, studies forecast devastating economic fallout if the White House continues its crackdown on international students.
Plus, arrests of sympathetic figures like the Milford High School student who was held for six days because of an allegedly expired visa, and the Tufts grad student jailed for a month and a half without any charges ever being filed, have proven unpopular. Stunts like the "Alligator Alcatraz" detention center in Florida have polled poorly as well.
No wonder support for Trump's immigration policies, once his strongest-polling area, has cratered among the bellwether independent voters, with just 28% approving while nearly 70% disapprove.
Even though we are a nation of immigrants, immigration has always been a touchy issue.
The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor in 1886, a boom period as well for anti-Catholic sentiment in the U.S. along with those infamous "no Irish need apply" signs on stores.
President Trump may have thrived politically by bashing illegal immigrants but that has coincided with era when parts of the economy thrive on their labor.
So, it's no wonder Americans are still sending a mixed message - no to migrants flooding over the border, but also, no thanks to gratuitous cruelty and disregard for due process.
