Q&A with America's Voice's Frank Sharry

America’s Voice is the communications hub of the nation’s pro-immigrant movement. Our mission is to build the public support and the political will needed to enact policy changes that secure freedom and opportunity for immigrants in America. Our North Star: win legislation that creates pathways to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented Americans -- most of whom have lived in America for 15 years and, in our view, are deserving of formal recognition as the Americans they already are. 

Our organization couldn’t succeed without being at the heart of the expanding ecosystem of pro-immigrant groups across the country - a network that includes organizing networks, immigrant-led formations, civil rights groups, ethnic associations, faith organizations, labor groups, policy experts and some business groups. And we at America’s Voice like to think the pro-immigrant movement can’t succeed without our ability to put strategic communications at the heart of our collective advocacy and activism. 

In fact, when we founded America’s Voice in 2008, it was to address a huge gap in our movement. With respect to specific policy proposals, immigrant advocates held the upper hand with the public and a majority of policy makers. But our press was terrible. Immigrants were too often regarded as a zero-sum threat to our economy and culture, and immigration was too often characterized by the punditry as a political loser for Democrats and an effective wedge issue for Republicans. 

So we built an organization dedicated to the proposition that by winning the big public arguments our movement would be in a better position to win big policy breakthroughs. For the past 14 years, we have spent every day driving coverage and commentary in the mainstream media, in Spanish language media and in social media. The goal: build broad and deep public support in order to create political space for policy progress. 

In cooperation with many local and national actors in our movement, we’ve made significant progress:

• Three-quarters of Americans believe immigration is a good thing for the country. In July 2021, Gallup found that 75% believe immigration is a good thing, with only 21% saying it's a bad thing. Since 2002, the “good thing” rating has increased by 25%.
• Two-thirds of Americans believe immigration should be increased or kept at its current level. In July 2021, Gallup found that 33% support immigration increases, 35% support keeping levels at the present level, and 31% support a decrease. It’s noteworthy the Gallup question does not distinguish between legal and unauthorized migration. It’s also noteworthy that these findings represent a dramatic shift from the mid-1990s when only 6% supported immigration increases, 27% supported current levels and a whopping 65% supported a decrease.
• Three-quarters of Americans support the legalization of undocumented immigrants. In recently-released polling of 2,500 voters by the highly-regarded Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), 62% of Americans support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and an additional 14% support permanent legal status without citizenship. 
  • Public support for legalization is durable. PRRI has asked this question annually since 2013 and support for citizenship has ranged between 62% and 67% percent each year. 
  • A path to citizenship is divisive only among Republicans. 76% of Democrats, 64% of independents, and 62% of all Americans support a path to citizenship. Among Republicans, 43% support pathways to citizenship; 13% support permanent residency short of citizenship; and 44% support deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Of course, public support is not enough to enact major reforms in American politics. We need a strong and united movement, compelling and unusual allies, relentless legislative champions, and, perhaps the most elusive of all, a political system structurally and morally capable of responding to the public demand for reform. 

The first lesson we learned is that we were strong enough to resist Trump’s relentless four-year war on immigrants and refugees. The second lesson we learned is that we are not yet strong enough to overcome the structural obstacles to a long-overdue legislative breakthrough. 

The war on Trump’s war

From the moment Donald Trump descended the escalator in Trump Tower to call Mexicans “criminals'' and “rapists,” nativism has been the animating force of Trumpism. Trump and his sidekick Stephen Miller certainly inflicted a massive amount of pain, trauma and suffering on immigrants and refugees. After all, cruelty was the point. But they did not win the sweeping and permanent policy changes they sought: 

• Their “zero tolerance” policies that led to more than 5,000 kids being ripped from the arms of their parents brought such blowback the administration was forced to relent. 
• Their efforts to terrorize immigrant families into self-deporting from America did not work. 
• Their determination to permanently slash legal immigration levels, close the door on refugees from around the world and end asylum at our southern border did not work. 
• Their efforts to send protections for Dreamers (DACA) and those here from unstable and dangerous countries of origin (TPS) led to public revulsion at the idea of deporting those who grew up here and work hard in a variety of critical fields.
• And, they did not build a 2,000 mile border wall. A rally chant that became a vanity project became mired in cost overruns, corruption, environmental destruction and public opposition. The parts of the wall the administration did build wound up being easily breached by an inexpensive rope ladder or chainsaw available for sale at any home supply store. 

Politically, Trump’s nativism turned out to be a loser, too. When Trump won in 2016, most in the political class blamed, at least in part, immigration. And at the time, we feared that four years of demonizing and dehumanizing rhetoric from the bully in the bully pulpit would take a huge toll. In fact, just the opposite happened. Trump’s xenophobia never got much traction outside the cul-de-sac of his base and it backfired with the majority of Americans. As David Graham of The Atlantic wrote, Trump “managed to force a national conversation around immigration, but rather than bring people to his side, he’s convinced them he’s wrong.”

Building back better -- at the southern border and in Congress -- falls short

The Biden Administration came into office with a strong platform of immigration and refugee promises and made an impressive number of bold moves early. The President hired some of the best and the brightest from our movement, introduced sweeping legislation, and overturned many of the cruelest Trump executive actions. But two dynamics slowed our progress considerably: the politics of increasing migrant arrivals at the southern border, and the difficulty of making legislative sausage with a 50-50 Senate and the filibuster in place.

As the region emerged from Covid lockdowns, forced migration was bound to increase. Moreover, the causes of migration -- violence, climate disasters, corruption and human rights abuses -- have been exacerbated, not mitigated, by the pandemic. In America, the right-wing media ecosystem seized on increasing arrivals at the southern border - something that has happened under every president this century, including Trump -- as the “Biden border crisis.” Despite our best efforts, many in the mainstream media amplified this narrative. And despite dogged efforts by experts on the inside to build up an asylum system that Trump and Miller had burned to the ground, the White House ultimately decided to get tougher and go quiet. They started expelling Haitians to a failing state and left the immigration debate to right-wing propagandists.  

Of course, we had something to say about all this. We encouraged the Biden White House to hold strong, lean in and make their case. We helped them do so, as well. For example, after deploying a highly regarded Democratic pollster to analyze the administration’s challenge in mid-2021, here is what he concluded:

“Democrats do not have to run away from the border debate. Efforts supported by Democrats to build a fair, orderly, and humane system at the border are very popular. Voters will respond positively if President Biden executes on his plan to do so, and communicates on it forcefully. If Democrats do not do so, voters will continue to only hear the Republican side of the story.”  

As we say at America’s Voice, you can’t win an argument if you don’t engage.

Meanwhile, in 2021 the pro-immigrant movement and Congress focused on trying to enact a broad legalization bill. With Republicans far more interested in running against immigration in the midterms than in helping Democrats enact immigration reform in Congress, we decided there was only one way to overcome the Senate filibuster: include immigration reform in the Build Back Better package slated to be passed under the budget reconciliation rules that enabled Democrats to pass major legislation with only 50 votes. Despite strong public support and universal Democratic congressional support for a proposal to put some 8 million undocumented immigrants on pathways to citizenship, we fell short. Senator Joe Manchin’s opposition to the overall package and the Senate parliamentarian’s high-handed rejection of including immigration in a budget bill saw to that.  

Subsequently, the movement is turning its attention to executive actions that Biden can take. One major thrust of activity is aimed at designating Temporary Protected Status to nationals of unstable and unsafe countries such as Cameroon, Mauritania, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and more. Another major thrust of activity is aimed at rolling back the bloated detention and deportation machinery expanded under Trump. A third thrust is to build back the refugee admissions and resettlement program for populations such as the Afghans and Ukrainians, and to build anew an asylum system that deals with life-and-death decisions in a process that respects due process. 

While we continue to advocate for legislative and administrative policy reforms that legalize undocumented immigrants, our top priority for this year is to ensure that immigration survives what could be a difficult 2022 election cycle. 

In America and beyond, the contentious issue of immigration has become a key issue in the struggle between liberal multiracial democracy and illiberal ethnonationalist authoritarianism. The Republican Party, once divided on the issue of immigration, has closed ranks behind the nativism of Donald Trump and Stephen Miller. Led by Tucker Carlson, the radical right in America is working to mainstream conspiracy theories about Black and brown immigrants “invading” our territory at the behest of Democrats in order to “replace” embattled white Christians. 

This is no longer just a policy debate. This is an active front in the culture war being waged by Republicans as part of their countermajoritarian project. As a result, the stakes for immigration are very high. By early 2023, will immigration be viewed as a radioactive political loser for Democrats and an electric issue that helps Republicans? Or will the consensus be that immigration was not a major factor in the outcome of the 2022 elections, and the issue is one which works better in GOP primaries than in hotly contested general elections?  

America’s Voice has long taken the lead in shaping the pre- and post-election narrative regarding the politics of immigration. 

• In 2010, we helped to define Harry Reid’s come-from-behind reelection victory over Sharron Angle for US Senate in Nevada as a big win for immigration. 
• In 2012, we helped define Barack Obama’s defeat of Mitt Romney as a big win for immigration.
• In 2017, we helped define the defeat of Ed Gillespie in the Virginia governor’s race as a sharp rejection of Trumpian race-baiting. 
• In 2018, we helped define the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives as, in part, a rejection of Trump’s nationalization of the elections around “caravans and criminals.” 
• And in 2020, we made the case to Democrats and most of the political media that the public is with us and not Trump on immigration. Public opinion settled, with approximately 60% of voters firmly rejecting Trump’s divisive rhetoric and cruel policies (separating families, ending DACA, building the wall). Indeed, this public support convinced Biden to lean in on the issue in the final debate, and his campaign ran pro-immigrant ads in the closing weeks of the race.

So, over the next year America’s Voice plans to do what we do best: put immigrants and immigration in the best position possible coming out of the 2022 elections. 

If immigration is blamed for big Democratic losses, immigrants and our reform agenda could suffer a significant and long-term setback. If immigration survives the 2022 election -- meaning it winds up being seen as an issue that didn’t matter much in most races, and in some generated more backlash than bite -- then immigration lives. If a continued sense of support for welcoming immigrants and refugees survives, we will chalk it up as a battle won in the broad-ranging effort to save multiracial democracy.

Immediately, we need support for our political program of exposing Republican xenophobic dog-whistles and race-baiting, tracking races where immigration will be a major factor, testing messages to help Democratic candidates navigate this challenging and contentious issue, and enabling us to influence the post-election narrative regarding immigration. 

Going forward, America’s Voice could use institutional support at a moment of leadership transition. I am stepping down late this year. As the Executive Director for the past 14 years, and a 65-year-old veteran of the immigration wars, I’ve run my race. It’s time for a rising leader to take the reins and bring forth America’s Voice 2.0. Support for the transition, the search, the onboarding of a new Executive Director and sustenance as a new leader gets his or her feet planted will be deeply appreciated. Luminate recently gave us some funding for this purpose, and we invite others to do the same. 

In the long run, America’s Voice is best understood as a core element of an expanding ecosystem, and the entire movement needs support to build enough strength to overcome the weaponization of immigration by the increasingly radical right in America. We will not be demoralized or demobilized. We are going to keep fighting, keep building and keep growing until we enact the breakthrough reform agenda that truly embraces immigrants and refugees as full and equal members of “We the People.”