Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) says that if a mass amnesty plan were as popular as the mainstream media purports it to be, Democrats would have used a year-end spending bill to shut down the government unless they got amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

In a response to a New York Times report on President Trump’s pro-American immigration agenda, Cotton fired back at the notion from the mainstream media and open borders advocates that the DREAM Act, the most expansive amnesty plan filed in Congress, is popular.

Cotton also credited President Trump’s opposition to the process known as “chain migration,” where newly naturalized immigrants can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S. with them, and the Diversity Visa Lottery program, as being “part of his victory” in the 2016 presidential election.

The Diversity Visa Lottery gives out 50,000 visas every year to foreign nationals from a multitude of countries, including those with known terrorist problems – such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Yemen, and Uzbekistan.

10. And if mass amnesty without real reform, eg, the DREAM Act, were so popular, Dems would've shut down government over it. But it's not, they know it, & that's why they folded & passed a funding bill without amnesty. THE END. — Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) December 24, 2017

In multiple statements ahead of the end of the year, Democrats and Republican establishment figures claimed they would shut down the federal government if a year-end spending bill did not include amnesty for illegal aliens shielded from deportation under the President Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

But, roughly two weeks before the spending bill was passed by the House and Senate, and subsequently signed off on by President Trump, Democrats began reversing course on DACA, no longer stating that they would shut down the government over the issue.

Cotton’s assertion that a DREAM Act amnesty that would begin with nearly 800,000 to 3.5 million illegal aliens getting permanent legal status is unpopular with Americans is backed up by multiple Breitbart News reports.

For example, as Breitbart News reported, support for shutting down the government to give DACA illegal aliens amnesty collapsed at the beginning of December, with less than 35 percent of Democratic voters supporting the initiative.

Poll: Support to Shut Down Gov’t Over DACA Amnesty Collapses to Less than 35 Percent Among Democrats https://t.co/r5KuhP4MfM — John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) December 6, 2017

A week later, Breitbart News reported, another poll revealed that only 20 percent of swing voters across the country believed giving amnesty to DACA illegal aliens was an “extremely important priority.”

Even among Democrats, the poll reaffirmed that DACA amnesty was not a priority for left-wing voters, with an amnesty sharing an eighth-place ranking in a priority list of 15 named issues, just ahead of “renegotiating NAFTA, a trade agreement between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, to provide more protection for US-based jobs,” but far behind “Taking action to lower prescription drug prices.”

Furthermore, a poll released a week before the House and Senate passed their spending bill with no amnesty for DACA illegal aliens, showed that only about 18 percent of swing voters said DACA amnesty was an “extremely important priority.”

While DACA amnesty continues to poll poorly with Americans, Trump’s pro-American immigration agenda remains popular, though that has not been enough for House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to take up immigration reform initiatives that would lower overall immigration levels to benefit American workers.

In the most recent polling on mandatory E-Verify, conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, Americans overwhelmingly support the immigration initiative with 68 percent of voters supporting the plan. E-Verify is the system that prevents businesses from hiring illegal aliens over Americans.

Another 71 percent of voters said businesses should be required to hire from pools of Americans with the highest unemployment rates before importing cheaper, foreign workers through various visa programs or hiring illegal aliens.

The poll also revealed the vast support that economic nationalism has among the American public. Even if Americans had to pay more for products and goods, the Pulse Opinion Research poll showed nearly 60 percent of voters said it would be better for businesses to pay more to attract American workers even if prices did rise.