Political parties' impact on immigration

DEFINITION: Organizations that reflect the various beliefs and views of a country and in an organized fashion put forth candidates for elective offices

SIGNIFICANCE: Political parties have impacted immigration in both positive and negative ways. Most American political parties have opposed unrestricted immigration and when in power have passed laws to restrict immigration and, at times, make naturalization more difficult. In contrast, membership in political parties and active participation in politics have provided one of the means by which members of some immigrant groups—particularly Irish and Germans—have been able to preserve their culture while becoming upwardly mobile in American society.

Throughout American history, the stances of political parties toward immigrants have been affected by a number of factors, including the naturalization status of the immigrants, the sizes of particular immigrant populations, and the general attitudes of the American voting constituency toward immigrants. From the late eighteenth century through most of the twentieth century, parties mirrored the American distrust of foreigners, their languages, their religions, their cultures, and their physical appearances. Through that long period of time, the American population in general viewed immigrants as threats to the maintenance of their religious and cultural traditions as well as their jobs.

The platforms of almost all political parties have advocated restrictions on immigration and often have proposed more stringent requirements for naturalization. However, from 1850 through the last years of the twentieth century, the Democratic Party has been the one exception to this generalization. During the years surrounding the turn of the twenty-first century, as the composition of the American voting population was changingwith ever-increasing numbers of non-White and non-Anglo-Saxon votersthe political parties began to recognize the importance of immigrants as voters and became more aware of issues important to immigrants.

Nineteenth Century Political Parties

The nineteenth century witnessed massive immigration to the United States from Europe. Driven by famine, poor economic conditions, and political and religious persecution, immigrants arrived from Ireland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Belgium, and central and eastern European countries. Their customs and lifestyles were different from those of native-born Americansmost of them speakers of languages other than English. American citizenswho tended to be isolationists and distrust anything or anyone not Americanreacted negatively to the influx of immigrants. Of particular concern were the large numbers of Irish Catholic immigrants who were entering the country. The primarily Protestant Anglo-Saxon population was particularly apprehensive about Irish Catholic allegiance to the Roman Catholic pope. Limiting immigration or stopping it completely became a central issuehe political parties that had members seated in Congress called for restrictions on immigration and passed laws to that end.

Nativismwhich advocated the perpetuation of the established Anglo-Saxon culture and the prevention of any foreign culture being establishedresulted in the founding of a number of small political parties and secret societies that were anti-immigration and anti-immigrants. These included the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, the American Partyalso called the Know-Nothing Partyand the Greenback Labor Party. Members of these organizations were of Protestant faiths and came from the middle and working classes of society. They insisted that Roman Catholic immigrantsespecially Irish Catholicsintended to gain elected offices and then place the country under the rule of the Pope.

The other main tenet of their anti-immigrant stance was that immigrants should not be given jobs and employers should only hire what nativists called “true Americans.” In addition to restrictions on immigration, their campaign platform included proposals to increase the length of time immigrants had to live in the United States before becoming eligible to apply for naturalization. The American Party enjoyed considerable success in areas where large numbers of immigrants settled. In 1854, the party gained control of the Massachusetts legislature. The Whig Partyone of the two major political parties at the timealso advocated placing restrictions on immigration and looked upon immigrants as outsiders. In contrast, the other major partythe Democratswas favorable to immigrants and recruited urban Irish and German immigrants into their party.

Irish Immigrants and the Democratic Party

The Democrat Party was already looked upon favorably by Irish immigrants, who were for the most part laborers in factories, slaughterhouses, and steel mills in large cities such as Chicago, Boston, and New York. The party’s platform emphasized programs to provide government aid and protection to immigrants, the unemployed, and the impoverished. As the primary immigrant group targeted by the nativists, the Irish were well aware that they needed to have input into the political system in order to counter and prevent the type of legislation proposed. Becoming politically active was easier for the Irish than for the majority of other immigrant groups. They spoke both English and Gaelic and were familiar with a political system with many similarities to the United States government. The Irish appeared to the Democratic Party as a population to be recruited because they were the largest ethnic group and their resistance to English oppression had developed a sense of unity among them. Thus the recruiting of the Irish in the United States would open the way to the winning of new arrivals for the party as well.

In addition to wanting to offset the attacks of the nativists, Irish laborers sought to improve their economic situation and lifestyle by acquiring better jobs. Membership in the Democrat Party was one way to achieving this goal. The Party offered jobs in city government and services to its loyal party workers. Helping to get out the vote and win the election meant better jobs and upward social mobility. So many Irish joined the Democratic Party they actually came to dominate the partymaintained that dominance from 1860 through the 1920s. Although the patronage system of so-called “machine politics” has been severely criticized for its cronyism and nepotism and for awarding of offices in return for political support rather than on the basis of merit, it did much to disperse the Irish throughout the various economic classes and assimilate them into the general population of the United States.

German Immigrants and the Republican Party

Between 1840 and 1920, a strong wave of anti-German feelings swept the United States. This was due in great part to the fact that the Germanswhile assimilating in many waysinsisted on maintaining their social culture and their language. They established German language elementary schools in their communities and taught children in their native language. Taking the traditional Republican Party position regarding immigrants as outsiders, Republicans in Illinois and Wisconsin attempted to pass laws in 1890 that would close the German language elementary schools. The laws did not pass, however, and German voters helped bring about the defeat of many Republican candidates in 1890. As active participants in the labor movement, the German immigrants were the major founders of the Socialist Party of America in 1901. Thus German immigrantslike Irish immigrantsdid not remain a “foreign” population outside the American political process. Instead, they became American citizens involved in American political parties and the political life of the country.

Asian Immigrants

From the mid-nineteenth century until after World War II during the 1940s, Asian immigrants were excluded from the political life of the United States by a variety of laws restricting their rights and excluding them from citizenship. During and after World War II, these laws were repealed and other laws favoring Asian immigrants were passed. By 1962, Asian immigrants were playing an active role in American politics as members of both major parties and increasing numbers of them were elected to public offices.

Trends in the Late Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries

The twentieth century was a time of significant change in both the attitudes of Americans and the role of the United States in world affairs. The isolationism that had been popular in the United States since its founding was no longer a sustainable position for the country after two world wars. International cooperation became important and changed attitudes toward immigrants. The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s also helped to change public attitudes. The concept of an exclusively White Anglo-Saxon electorate was challenged and began to be replaced by one that included individuals of other racial and ethnic ancestries.

Political parties began to recognize and target the African American population of voters and potential voters. Issues important to these voters became part of the platforms of the major political parties. At first, the major political parties focused more on African Americans than on immigrant populations, although many of the latter had ancestors who had immigrated from Europe and had already become members of political parties.

Due in large part to changes in U.S. immigration laws during the second half of the twentieth century, the composition of the population of the United States changed significantly. During the early years of the twenty-first century, one out of every five adults living in the United States was born in a foreign country. Approximately one-third of the population was of non-White and non-European descent. The largest of these groups was the Mexican American communityrecognized by both major political parties as a significant and important sector of the voting population. In the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections, both the Democratic and Republican Parties targeted and made special efforts to attract the Mexican American voters.

The administration of President Barack Obama and during the 2016 presidential election showed how great the divide was between the Republican and Democratic views on immigrationparticularly how to handle undocumented immigrants. In general, Republicans and other conservatives advocated for strict border laws, deportations of undocumented immigrants, and complained noncitizens burdened the country and took jobs away from American citizens. Democrats and other liberals, many of whom are also interested in better-run border patrol, view immigrants positively and have advocated for pardons, integrations, and even citizenship for unauthorized immigrants. For instance, Democratic president Barack Obama an executive order to allow people brought to the country illegally as children to apply for temporary protection from deportation and a two-year work or study permitinstituting a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

The administration of Republican President Donald Trumpby contrastnot only rescinded DACA and temporary protected status for Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Salvadorans but also prevented certain Muslim visitors from entering the country. The Trump administration also promote the expansion of a border wall with Mexico. It also aggressively pursued apprehensions, detentions, and deportations. There were also calls for a purely merit-based immigration system and a further restriction on skilled-worker visas. In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections, the Republican Party attempted to use fears of a caravan of 6,000 Honduran immigrants moving toward the border between Mexico and the United States to garner votes. This method had only limited success. While the Republican Party made small gains in the Senate, it lost many seats in the House of Representatives, some governorships, and state legislatures. The immigrant caravan largely dissipated after reaching the border in late November of that year. Some members began the lengthy process of applying for asylum in the United Statesmany remained in Mexico or returned to Honduras.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Trump administration utilized a decades-old and seldom-employed measure to override entry preferences for immigrants seeking political asylum in the United States. Title 42 allowed U.S. border agents to expel immigrants on the premise they could potentially contribute to public health risksTitle 42 was used to return over 2,600,000 immigrants from March 2020 through February 2023.

The Covid-19 pandemicwhich began in 2020had the effect of shrinking the U.S. economy and number of immigrants entering the U.S. Following the economic rebound, demand for labor increased. Coupled with worsening economic and security environments in native countries, immigration into the United States resumed in historic numbers. In the 2020s, the U.S. economy resumed its upward trend. By the mid-2020s, California had the fifth largest economy in the world, ahead of entire developed nations such as Canada. Texas enjoyed the world's eighth-largest economy. As labor requirements and opportunities increased, birth rates among the native-born populations in the United States declined. The native-born population in the United States also had longer life expectancies. Thus, older native-born demographics increased, while those of working-age in the younger generations decreased, as their family sizes became smaller. Immigrant labor filled this void. This environment was best exemplified in the deep Southern state of Texas. Beginning in 2023, Hispanics overtook the White population as the state's largest demographic. These changes resulted in many nativist movements that sought to overturn these societal and cultural changes that they solely attributed to unchecked immigration into the United States. This message was used to great political advantage.

In April 2022, President Joe Biden's administration sought to end Title 42 as an automatic disqualifier for immigrants to enter the United States. The same month, more than 20 states petitioned a Louisiana federal judge and later the U.S. Supreme Court to keep the measure in place. In February 2023, the Supreme Court canceled arguments for the case—which removed the primary legal obstacle for Title 42 to expire in May 2023. In response to Republican criticism over continuing inflows of immigrants, the Joe Biden administration began to explore other mechanisms to curb the entry of undocumented immigrants into the United States.

In the 2024 presidential election, the issue of immigration was at the forefront of American political campaigns. The Republican Party had made immigration a primary opposition strategy during the presidency of Joe Biden (2021-2025). Republican governors took up the immigration mantle during the interim period between the 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns with actions that kept the immigration issue as a constantly reported topic in the media. These included actions such as the Republican-led effort to impeach the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security—Alejandro Mayorkas. Other highly publicized actions included Texas governor Greg Abbot deploying the Texas National Guard to its border with Mexico and Florida governor—an early presidential candidate—Ron DeSantis’ campaign to bus immigrants to northern states. By 2024, these efforts succeed as Americans now viewed immigration controls as a national priority and favored more entry restrictions. Democratic Party candidates at the national and state levels shifted their messaging to align with this trend. Immigration, as expected, formed a prominent role during Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

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