Democrats Used To Talk About 'Criminal Immigrants,' So What Changed The Party? When bipartisan immigration discussions pop up, Democrats often insist it's hard to find a solution because of the GOP's immigration evolution. The days of Ronald Reagan endorsing an amnesty program and denouncing walls are long gone, replaced by President Trump's talk of "rapists" and quest for a wall. But the reality is that Democrats have moved, too, from when the party cited the flow of drugs and "criminal immigrants" two decades ago, the same arguments for border security that Republicans use now. The facts on the ground have changed since then, but so have political forces. The makeup of the Democratic Party has changed, and its base has adopted a fundamentally more progressive attitude on immigration in a relatively short time span, which poses a challenge for party leaders. In 1994, 32 percent of Democrats said immigrants strengthen the country because of their hard work and talents. Today, 83 percent of Democrats feel that way, according to polling from the Pew Research Center. During that same time frame, the percentage of Democrats who said immigrants are a burden on the country because they take jobs, housing and healthcare declined by about 50 percent. The overwhelming consensus among Democrats these days is that immigrants are an asset, not a national security threat, and that immigration reform should focus on humanitarian concerns, not border enforcement. President Trump attacks Democrats as the party of "open borders." Although Democrats decry that label, leaders have to strike a balance when they talk about "border security" as the party's base has shifted to the left. The Clinton years In his 1996 State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton proudly told Congress: "After years of neglect, this administration has taken a strong stand to stiffen the protection of our borders." Clinton, as part of his overall law and order agenda, sought to crack down on illegal immigration. Here's a paragraph from the 1996 Democratic Party platform: Today's Democratic Party also believes we must remain a nation of laws. We cannot tolerate illegal immigration and we must stop it. For years before Bill Clinton became President, Washington talked tough but failed to act. In 1992, our borders might as well not have existed. The border was under-patrolled, and what patrols there were, were under-equipped. Drugs flowed freely. Illegal immigration was rampant. Criminal immigrants, deported after committing crimes in America, returned the very next day to commit crimes again. That same year, Congress passed and Clinton signed into law the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. "The '96 laws significantly increased ... the numbers of crimes for which you were deportable," said Doris Meissner, the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in the Clinton administration, who now feels those laws "by and large went overboard." (More at above url including charts, etc.)