The bad news in a new Gallup national survey is that 55 percent of respondents favor reducing what’s listed generically as “immigration,” up from 41 percent just a year ago, driven by sagging support for increasing or at least maintaining current inflows. The problem with the question is that it doesn’t differentiate between legal immigration – an expensive, byzantine fucking mess of a system that’s decades overdue for reform, illegal immigration – as in simply jumping the border or overstaying a tourist visa, or the grey area of asylum claims – plenty of them no doubt legitimate, but a system often exploited by people who would’ve otherwise just jumped the border.

And the actual issue at hand when it comes to the Fox News catch-all of “the border,” almost certainly what’s been metastasizing into the finding of that question, something that white nationalist propagandists are going to exploit as “a massive shift against ALL forms of immigration.”

Naturally they’ll skip over the good news in the poll: 81 percent support “Allowing immigrants who were brought to the US illegally as children the chance to become US citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time,” and 70 percent supporting “Allowing immigrants living in the US illegally the chance to become US citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time,” both of which are total non-starters with Republican politicians dependent on the votes of xenophobic losers. They would never get elected again if they alienated those opposed to both forms of amnesty – no matter how ambiguous the “certain requirements” part is worded.