An immigrant family wades through the Rio Grande while crossing from Mexico into the United States on September 30, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
By Mike Lee
It’s no secret that some politicians view public safety and immigration as a problem of people rather than as a policy problem. This creates wedge issues that are designed to divide voters in key battleground states like Pennsylvania.
In recent years, here is how this strategy has typically played out: one candidate will attack their rival for being soft on crime or for supporting policies that lead to more border crossings. They might respond with rhetoric doubling down on dated and failed approaches to public safety measures like more police, more incarceration, harsher sentencing, and calling for greater constriction of who can enter the country and when.
Earlier this month, we saw these dynamics in play during the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in Philadelphia. Similar campaign rhetoric is being used by down-ballot candidates across the country regardless of party affiliation.
But in 2024, our research shows that these messages miss the mark with voters on both sides of the aisle.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania recently conducted a series of polls with more than 600 likely voters across our state. Our methodology included text-to-web surveys and three days of online focus groups that dug into where Pennsylvanians of all political stripes stand on public safety and immigration.
On public safety, Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly want solutions that invest in the resources that address crime at the root. They want more counselors, not just more cops. Voters want affordable housing and jobs training that is decoupled from more jails and prisons. They want mental health services and treatment for substance use disorder, not mandatory minimum sentences.
These results should serve as a reminder to anyone seeking elected office that the vast majority of voters have moved on from the failed mass incarceration policies of the past. Those fear-mongering commercials and doomsayer stump speeches simply aren’t working anymore.
On immigration, Pennsylvania voters agree that the United States’ immigration system is broken and that there are reasonable steps that can be taken to fix it. By a margin of nearly two-to-one, Pennsylvanians want more resources at the border to expedite the processing of asylum seekers. Voters want to give work permits to those who claim asylum and a way to contribute to their communities. And they want to create a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented and for DREAMers.
Pennsylvania voters recognize that the more than $451 billion per year spent on immigration enforcement is a waste of resources and taxpayer money. They want a balanced approach to immigration that better addresses the problems at the border while giving undocumented immigrants the chance to come out of the shadows and succeed as new Americans.
This is where the majority of voters, Democrats, Republicans, and independents are in 2024 on the issues of public safety and immigration. And it’s not just in Pennsylvania. ACLU affiliates in Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan have conducted similar polling and have found that voters in those states share these sentiments when it comes to public safety and immigration.
There are solutions to public safety and immigration that are not built upon controlling the movement of Black and brown people. Voters prefer candidates who talk about solutions rather than blaming people or parties for our problems. It seems then, that those seeking elected office have a choice to make. Will they continue to embrace fear tactics and recycle tired messaging of the past? Or will they put the people first and meet voters where they are to create a future where we all can thrive?
Mike Lee is the executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.