Amplified by the news media and partisan outcry, immigration has become a melodramatic vehicle for political posturing. This is not a happy thing. Drama usurps both problem-solving and productive compromise between Republicans and Democrats. It also tends to mask significant poll numbers which reveal public sentiments that are often lost in the hand-wringing and public accusations.

“A slim majority of voters supports the mass deportation raids previewed by President Trump last week,” says a new Politico/Morning Consult poll.

It reveals that 51% of voters support the actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in recent days, compared with 35% of voters who “oppose the efforts.”

A Pew Research Center survey also reveals that one-third of Americans (57% of Republicans but only 11% of Democrats) agree that if “America is too open to people from all over the world, we risk losing our identity as a nation.” The finding is complicated, but it also has risen 7 percentage points in the last year.

Things are troubling to our neighbors in the South, meanwhile.

A majority of Mexicans — 55% — now favor deporting Central American migrants to their home countries before they reach the U.S. border; 51% also support the decision to send Mexico’s national guard to the border. Most telling, just 7% of the respondents would opt to give the visitors permanent residence, though a third are OK with granting them “temporary” residence.

Another 60% of the Mexicans polled say the visitors are a burden on Mexico — all this according to a survey of 1,200 Mexican adults conducted by The Washington Post and Reforma, a widely read newspaper in Mexico City.

“Last week, the governors of three Northern Mexican states signed a document saying they could not accept any more immigrants. Does this mean that a majority of Mexicans are racist? Of course not. Mexicans and the illegal immigrants they wish to expel are of the same race,” notes Paul Mirengoff, an analyst for Powerline.

“The poll results mean that most Mexicans realize that large-scale illegal immigration is bad for the host nation, and that a country with open borders risks no longer being a country. Until recently, most Democrats and Democratic politicians understood this. They weren’t racists, either. They were simply ‘hinged.’ Now they are unhinged,” writes Mr. Mirengoff.

BEN CARSON’S REMINDER

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson’s story of achievement as a neurosurgeon was so compelling that Hollywood made a feature film out of it in 2009 with Cuba Gooding Jr. playing the lead role.

It stands to reason, then, that Mr. Carson has some insight into certain social dynamics.

“You watched an almost unanimous verdict of the media that President Trump is a hard-boiled racist. What’s your response to that?” Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked the HUD secretary.

“I’ve never seen any evidence of that whatsoever,” Mr. Carson replied. “Our conversations have frequently centered around disadvantaged people in our country and what we can do to elevate them. And it seems to me like a racist wouldn’t spend so much time on second-chance legislation.”

“He wouldn’t spend so much time with opportunity zones, trying to take people who have made a lot of money and put those unrealized capital gains into areas that have traditionally been neglected so that people can rise. He wouldn’t spend so much time working on affordable housing. These are not things that people who are racist would do. People need to look at what the results are and not spend all of their time parsing every word and trying to make it fit their narrative,” he said.

“Would you work for a racist?” Mr. Carlson asked.

“No, I wouldn’t. I would be out there it in two seconds. And I certainly have an opportunity to see what racism is, you know, growing up in Detroit and the ‘60s,” Mr. Carson concluded.

THE BOOKIES HAVE A SAY

“President Trump’s odds for a second term in the White House have shortened to his lowest ever numbers — despite the recent storm around his tweets urging four Democratic congresswomen to return to the countries they came from,” reports US-Bookies.com, an online betting house.

“Trump currently sits clear favorite to become POTUS once again in 2020 on 1/1 (+100),” the group said in an analysis.

“Ever since the markets opened, he has not deviated from top spot in the global betting markets which sees millions of dollars staked on the American political landscape. He is 45.2% likely to be president,” the report said.

“The betting public do not see recent controversies surrounding Trump’s alleged racist tweets as a stumbling block to him becoming POTUS once again — on the contrary, his odds on securing a second term are better than ever,” says US-Bookies spokesman Alex Donohue.

WEEKEND REAL ESTATE

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POLL DU JOUR

• 64% of Americans favor private companies and individuals participating in space travel; 68% of Republicans, 66% of independents and 57% of Democrats agree.

• 55% of Americans overall favor sending astronauts to Mars; 58% of Republicans, 52% of independents and 55% of Democrats agree.

• 54% of overall favor returning to the moon; 66% of Republicans, 49% of independents and 51% of Democrats.

• 36% say space travel should be attempted by national governments only; 32% of Republicans, 34% of independents and 43% of Democrats agree

• 29% overall would pay to take a short commercial space flight if they could afford it; 30% of Republicans, 29% of independents and 29% of Democrats agree.

Source: An Economist/YOUGOV poll of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted July 14-16.

• Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter at @harperbulletin

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