The Politics of the President’s Immigration Rhetoric

Abstract

Although research on immigration politics is extensive, few scholars have systematically connected immigration politics to the president’s rhetoric over time. This is surprising since all modern presidents have referenced immigration in their public statements and presidents play a central role in setting the policy agenda. The primary purpose of this paper is to explain the president’s immigration rhetoric since 1953. Thus, we collect all presidential speeches on immigration through the Obama Administration, calculating the president’s monthly attention to immigration, and the relative negativity of the president’s remarks. We theorize that presidents’ motivation to speak about immigration policy is driven by the attention others devote to immigration policy, and key interventions in the immigration policy debate. Rhetorical tone, we think, is a function of the changing policy definition of immigration generated by Prop 187 and the Post-911 era. Our results show that the content of presidential rhetoric on immigration is indeed a product of these factors, providing us with clear evidence as to when the president devotes public attention to one of the central issues of American politics.

The tone of the president's immigration rhetoric

“…First, the policy image of immigration has changed over time, which may be reflected in the president's rhetoric. For example, discussion of immigrants as vital to the American economy and part of a diverse American society will be associated with positive tonal attributes; but a discussion of immigration that emphasizes “illegal” immigrants will trend negative (Eshbaugh‐Soha & Juenke, 2022). Presidents are likely to present immigration policy differently depending on the policy image they choose to invoke in their rhetoric.…”