Public support for immigration controls shows that Americans aren't buying media hysteria

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Canada was once lauded all over the world for having a merit-based immigration system. Though strict, this country was widely perceived as welcoming. The same cannot be said for Donald Trump, who, despite angling for a similar approach, is being cast as though he’s bringing an immigration apocalypse upon the United States.

For months, Trump’s keystone promise on the file has been “mass deportations of undocumented immigrants,” of whom there are roughly 11 million (or 17 million, by the count of anti-immigration advocates). It’s a perfectly acceptable thing to do: entry requirements are there to ensure newcomers aren’t criminals or otherwise unable to support themselves in the new country. They’re also a cost to the rest of the population, with generous taxpayer-supported benefits packages available in states like California and New York.

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Trump has also proposed to end birthright citizenship — which, if passed, would contrast starkly with Canada, where birthright citizenship was recently given a generational expansion — and to end President Joe Biden’s “parole program” which authorizes entry for migrants who would have been otherwise illegal.

As far as values-based immigration proposals go, Trump says he’ll deport pro-Palestinian student protesters from abroad by revoking their study visas. He’s promised ideological screening as well, primarily to filter out “jihadists, Hamas or Hamas ideology.”

It’s not all about exclusion, either. Trump is looking to........

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