Daily Digest: Politics and immigration

Good morning, and welcome to Monday the start of another work week. Here's the Digest.

1. Fox News viewers have strongest anti-immigrant beliefs. When it comes to immigration policy, American opinions often break down along party lines, with most Republicans supporting President Trump, and Democrats vigorously opposed. But according to a new NPR-Ipsos poll, there's an even better predictor of how you feel about immigration: where you get your TV news. The poll of more than 1,000 people asked about Trump's immigration policies and proposals and about which immigrants should get priority in the U.S. system. The poll was conducted in English and Spanish from June 19-20. Most respondents said they got their news mainly from TV. On some questions, people who get their TV news primarily from Fox News or CNN are even further apart than Republicans and Democrats, with viewers of the other big TV networks somewhere in between.  "People who get their news from Fox News actually take the strongest anti-immigrant position of any group we looked at in this survey," Ipsos pollster Chris Jackson said. "I can't really say if those views are coming because of Fox. Or if they're watching Fox because they hold those views. But it's a really strong connection. I think it was very surprising," he said. (NPR)

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2. Pawlenty makes immigration an issue in his comeback run. Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty has made immigration the major policy focus of his comeback bid for governor, delivering a tough message amid a heated national debate as he tries to win over Minnesota Republicans. Since launching his campaign in April, Pawlenty has decried undocumented immigrants receiving government benefits, highlighted the case of a 90-year-old Carver County farmer beaten to death by two undocumented immigrants in 2015, called for a “pause” in refugee resettlement to Minnesota and spent weeks hammering some of the DFL candidates for governor for saying Minnesota should be a “sanctuary state” that bans local police from enforcing federal immigration law. Pawlenty says it's not a new issue for him, but Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson, also running for the Republican nomination for governor in the Aug. 14 primary, said Pawlenty’s immigration emphasis is a poll-tested play for the GOP electorate. (Star Tribune)

3. Draft gender identity policy at U of M sets penalties for 'misgendering.' Using the wrong pronoun could turn into a firing offense at the University of Minnesota. The U is considering a new “gender identity” policy that would assure transgender men and women, as well as others, the right to use whatever pronoun they wish on campus — whether it’s he, she, “ze” or something else. And everyone from professors to classmates would be expected to call them by the right words or risk potential disciplinary action, up to firing or expulsion. The pronoun rule is just one of the proposed changes in a draft U policy that, advocates say, would bar harassment and discrimination against transgender and “gender nonconforming” individuals. It’s designed, in part, to combat an indignity known as misgendering — when someone is called by a name or personal pronoun they no longer use. (Star Tribune)

4. Racial housing disparities persists in Duluth. People of color living in Duluth are about twice as likely as white residents to be renters. Only 27 percent of households identifying themselves as of color owned their homes in 2016, compared with 63 percent of white households, according to Duluth's most recent Housing Indicators Report. "Increasingly it seems like home ownership is getting farther out of reach for low-income folks. And folks of color in our community are, on average, not as wealthy as white folks are. They don't earn as much, and so many folks of color are starting at a disadvantage in that regard," said Jeff Corey, executive director of One Roof Community Housing.  The 2016 Duluth Housing Indicators Report directly attributes much of the city's continued wealth gap and the segregation of people of color into the lower-income neighborhoods to "government policies, one of which is called redlining." The report says: "Redlining systematically prevented black and other minority families from getting home loans. From 1934 to 1962, 98 percent of the $120 billion worth of home loans subsidized by the government were given to white families, effectively locking nonwhite families out of home ownership." (Duluth News Tribune)

5. What does all that jargon mean? After months of stumping on the campaign trail, the incumbent candidate made a substantial fundraising haul, filling their coffers in a critical battleground race. Get all that? Don't worry, us either. Many of those words are some of the worst examples of political jargon, or terms that are rarely heard uttered outside of Capitols, campaign headquarters or newsrooms. Unfortunately, election season is here, meaning this kind of insider political code is spilling out into everyone else's world via campaign ads, articles and the politicians themselves. To help you translate it all, here's a guide to frequently used political jargon that will definitely come up at some point this fall. (MPR News)