Over the weekend, two prominent Democrats, speaking in two completely different venues, made clear that their party’s approach to immigration over the past decade has not worked.

At the Munich Security Conference, former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton proclaimed that loose immigration policies in America have gone “too far”. While stipulating that enforcement should be carried out more humanely, she also said that “there is a legitimate reason to have a debate about things like migration”, and that it has been “disruptive and destabilising”. Back home, former president Barack Obama echoed these sentiments in an interview with podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen. “We’ve got to accommodate the reality,” he said, “that the majority of American people think that there’s a difference between somebody who’s a US citizen and somebody who’s not, and that they want an orderly immigration system.”

Such perspectives align with where the vast majority of Americans are on these issues: they want immigration laws enforced, but they think ICE and the Trump administration have gone too far. A sensible Democratic response to these enforcement efforts would likely take a more humane approach but not overlook Clinton’s and Obama’s criticisms.

Many Americans, however, may be wondering why it took senior Democratic figures so long to acknowledge the failure of their party’s approach. It was eminently clear both in the run-up to and aftermath of the 2024 presidential election that immigration was a top issue on voters’ minds — and that an overwhelming share of the electorate was fed up with Joe Biden’s lenient approach. Post-election polling showed that one in five voters said it was the top issue facing the country, and this group voted for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris by nearly a 70-point margin.

Heading into Trump’s second term, some moderate Democrats called on the party to interrogate where it had gone astray and rethink the best path forward. Many voters now think the President’s aggressive crackdown — which has targeted not only those who had broken laws but people who were in the country legally and following the rules, and even some US citizens — has gone too far. Yet the pendulum won’t automatically swing back to the Democrats. A Wall Street Journal poll last month found that voters continue to trust Republicans in Congress more than Democrats to handle both immigration (by 11 points) and border security (by a whopping 28 points).

How is it possible that Democrats have not capitalised on voters’ waning approval of Trump’s immigration policy? It may be that Americans just don’t trust the Democrats to have learned much from the Biden years. More likely, it’s the stubbornness and slow pace of change. Since the 2024 election, very few high-profile Democrats have forcefully challenged their party to re-examine its more permissive attitudes on the subject, and the pronouncements from Clinton and Obama may strike some voters as too little, too late. Democrats have only appeared willing to move on this after it was apparent that Trump’s struggles would not benefit them by default.

Consider Clinton’s remarks, in which she tried to make the case that Democrats are tough on immigration enforcement, pointing out that both Obama and her husband Bill deported more people than Trump has. But just 10 years ago, when she was competing against Bernie Sanders for her party’s presidential nomination, she sang a very different tune, denouncing Obama’s deportation policies and pledging not to deport anyone except for violent criminals and terrorists. By 2016, the Democratic Party itself had rid its platform of any mentions of immigration enforcement, except to say that it should be humane. And under Biden, of course, migrant encounters at the southern border hit historic highs.

In light of this history, it’s likely that Democrats’ recent rhetorical pivot won’t be enough for some voters, especially if they don’t see much change from the rest of the party. Might others look at Obama’s and Clinton’s remarks and think better late than never? Potentially. And with two highly regarded party figures leading the way, it’s possible that rank-and-file Democratic politicians and base voters will feel more emboldened to take a stronger stance in favour of enforcing laws against illegal immigration. That would require a rejection of both Trump’s hardline tactics and the more extreme views espoused by interest groups which have pushed the party further Left over the past decade.

This balanced approach would be a good first step toward helping Democrats win back voters’ trust — both this November and beyond.

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Michael Baharaeen is chief political analyst at The Liberal Patriot substack.

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