No. of Recommendations: 6
Trump put the issue square into the national consciousness when he came down the stairs in 2015 to announce his campaign. From then on it's been a Front And Center issue.
Greg Abbott, to his eternal credit, figured out how to make every locale that has the loads of the annoying "In this House We Believe no Human Being Is Illegal" signs in yards live up to their virtue signaling...
I was responding to his point that migrants are now an issue for "both sides" of the political divide.
Trump centered the issue in his first campaign, but that did not cause Democrats to moderate on the issue. If anything, his campaigning and election on that issue drove Democrats to become even more progressive on the issue (as often happens - for many issues, if one party stakes out a strong position on an issue, voters will take more partisan views on it). Trump drove up the salience of the issue, but it still remained a heavy partisan split.
Abbott is the one that drove Democrats to move more towards immigration enforcement. It was his approach that drove up the political pain within the Democratic caucus, especially in New York. That's what created the political circumstances where Democrats were forced - as a party - to move towards the center on the issue.
I can't say I'm actually shocked at how little credit Abbott is given, in light of the narcissistic attention-glutton that sits at the center of GOP politics who demands that all tribute be rendered to him. But still...it was the buses that changed the trajectory of immigration politics in the Democratic Party. Not Trump.
