RFK Jr. Proposes Immigration Policies With Wide Appeal

RFK Jr.’s Immigration Policy Proposals Appeal to Each Quadrant

Each of the statements in the quadrants below are drawn as direct quotes from www.kennedy24.com in the page for immigration policies. These statements are placed in the quadrants and Pew types where they arguably best fit the agendas each cares about most. This Kennedy24 campaign page states the following:

There are 1.6 million immigrants living in the U.S. while they await their asylum hearing. Fewer than 15% will be approved. We need to appoint hundreds more judges to deal with this backlog, and to ensure that newly arriving immigrants get a hearing before being admitted to the U.S. This is a common-sense solution that can transcend partisan rancor. (para. 12-13)

A Pew Research Center survey of the U.S. general public, in 2021, showed nine clusters of political beliefs and values, as described in an earlier post. The Pew labels and a limited number of descriptors are included in the quadrants below.

Thanks for reading. See videos about border crisis and RFK Jr’s visit to the border, at the end of the page.

Repeat of Quadrants Content

This section repeats the writing in the quadrants, for any who have difficulty reading in that format. Groups are presented in order of political party size.

This section repeats the writing in the quadrants, for any who have difficulty reading in that format. Groups are presented in order of political party size.

Auth-Left Quadrant

Pew type: Democratic mainstays

•      Older, less college educated

•      Most identify as moderate

•      Most racially and ethnically diverse

•      Liberal views on race, immigrations, and the social safety net, but conservative on immigration, crime, military

RFK Jr.’s immigration policies that would appeal to the democratic mainstays:

•       Because migrants have no documentation, they have no bargaining power or recourse when employers take advantage of them. They work for $5 or $6 an hour. They exist as the permanent bottom layer of a shadow economy from which it is almost impossible to escape. A pool of cheap, exploitable labor lowers the floor for all labor, putting downward pressure on wages and harming the American working class. 

Pew type: Establishment liberals

•      Liberal but prefer gradual change

•      More likely to back compromise

RFK Jr.’s immigration policies that would appeal to the establishment liberals:

•       This civil disorder is encroaching into the US, as destitute migrants flood American cities, sleeping on sidewalks and overwhelming humanitarian resources. Here too they are easy prey for criminals.

•       Get on top of asylum claims. We have to fully fund courts, services, and border agencies to allow lawful immigration in accordance with U.S. law.

Auth-Right Quadrant

Pew type: Committed conservatives

•      Pro-business

•      Pro well-managed immigration

•      Want limited government

RFK Jr. immigration policies that would appeal to the committed conservatives):

•       Plans to expand lawful, orderly immigration according to principles of justice and fairness

•       Gang violence all along the border has spiked as the cartels vie for turf through assassination and torture. The Mexican state of Sonora recorded 1765 murders in 2022, and many unsolved disappearances. The Mexican government’s official tally of disappearances now approaches 100,000.

•       We have to cultivate a more positive relationship with Mexico and work closely with its people and government who desperately want to be free of the plague of cartel violence.

Pew type: Faith and flag conservatives

•      Deeply conservative across issues

•      Christianity belongs in public life

RFK Jr.’s immigration policies that would appeal to the faith and flag conservatives:

•       Fentanyl and methamphetamine are flooding into the country across the border along with the migrants.

•       The border situation provide a financial foundation for criminal organizations that could persist of decades.

•       If claimants of political asylum knew their case would be heard swiftly, and that specious claims would be met with swift deportation, the cartels’ business model would fail.

Lib-Right Quadrant

Pew type: Populist right

•      Least college educated

•      Most fervent hard-liners on immigration

•      Say U.S. law favors a powerful few

•      Say tax the rich more

RFK Jr.’s immigration policies that would appeal to the populist right:

•       Plans to seal the border to illegal immigration; “immigration is being administered by the cartels, not our government”

•       Estimated $13 billion made by cartels from human smuggling in 2022. [video]

Pew type: Ambivalent right

•      Young, not religious

•      Want limited government

•      Want stricter immigration policy

RFK Jr.’s immigration policies that would appeal to the ambivalent right:

•       We will use technology that was installed at the border then dismantled by the Biden administration, such as cameras, lights, and motion detectors, coupled with physical barriers in key areas (there is no need to build a wall across the entire 2,000-mile border). We have the technology to prevent people from getting through undetected. We can control the border. We have the technology. We can deploy the personnel. All we need is the will.

Lib-left (Green) Quadrant

Pew type: Progressive left

•       Young and highly educated

•       Pro Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren

•       Extremely liberal policy positions

RFK Jr.’s immigration policies that would appeal to the progressive left:  

•       As a young man, RFK Jr. had the honor to work with Cesar Chavez. He understood that farm laborers’ conditions would never improve when endless new busloads of undocumented immigrants were available to replace any workers who tried to bargain for better working conditions. He was no xenophobe. Immigration is good for this country. It is unlawful, disorderly illegal immigration that harms migrants and undercuts American workers.

Pew type: Outsider left

•       Especially liberal on issues of race, immigration, and climate

•       Many identify as independents

•       Don’t believe the U.S. is the best nation

RFK Jr.’s immigration policies that would appeal to the outsider left:

•       Deciding to spend a lifetime of savings …make this journey is the biggest decisions of most migrants' lives. They do not make that kind of a decision in a vacuum. We must give them forewarning that…they can no longer expect to be let into the country due to judicial delays.