What is it about conservatives insisting that they support "legal" immigration when they clearly don't?
Trump has set the precedent and proven that there is almost no accountability whatsoever for just admitting straight up that you're a nativist, racist, or nationalist. Why be afraid of just saying "I don't like immigrants and I don't want them to come here?"
When it comes down to it, proving that "I support immigration as long as it's legal" is almost always a lie is pretty easy..
Refugees are legal immigrants. Asylum seekers are legal immigrants, the victims of the Muslim Ban and the Africa Ban are legal immigrants. We could end ALL illegal immigration by legalizing all immigration and yet none of them endorse that.
Meanwhile, they continue to stamp their feet and insist on this "legal" immigration lie even as they scream for policies that destroy it.
Amazingly, there are still people who would be appalled if they were called racist even if they are upholding oppressive systems.
Conservatives get to say "legal" immigration and then make that legal system absolutely impossible to navigate or outright unreachable by certain groups, while skirting by the blinders of the tepid nativists who knew racism is wrong, don't care THAT much, and still want to feel good about themselves at neighborhood dinner parties.
Supporting "legal" immigration doesn't cause enough cognitive dissonance with the vast majority of conservative or even moderate voters to register that viewpoint as far right. It is more often used as an attempt to soften extreme ideas to a large public outside of outright bigots -- and it's working.