CNN: GOP Moderates Silenced on Immigration After 2018

Republicans with moderate views on immigration have become scarce in Congress following the 2018 elections, when half of the most pro-immigration members of the GOP left office, CNN reports.

CNN’s Harry Enten noted in an article last year that of the 23 House Republicans who signed a discharge petition to force a vote on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, less than half, just nine, remained in office following the midterm elections that year. Of those nine, many have criticized President Donald Trump’s recent tweets about a group of Democratic congresswomen as racist, as have a few other Republicans.

Republicans who received low scores from NumbersUSA, a group that advocates for reduced immigration, before the 2018 midterm elections were less likely to remain in office after those elections.

Enten attributes this to a lack of "electoral incentive to call out the president,” and risk alienating Trump supporters, as only three Republicans in the House won their elections in a district that Trump lost in 2016.

“For Trump critics, there is a bright side to a lack of moderate Republican voices on immigration: Those who have left the House have been replaced by Democrats,” Enten writes. “Democrats are more than willing to call Trump out and try to pass a resolution condemning him for his weekend tweets.”

• Ocasio-Cortez, Allies Say They Won't Be Baited by Trump Attacks
• Romney Dodges Whether Trump's Tweets Were Racist