Well, I am old enough to realize this: when bad things happen that draw attention to an issue, like the child separation thing with immigration and now the Supreme Court opening with abortion, people that don't have the time or inclination to understand what's going on with their government as regards same, finally pay attention and learn some of the nuance. There's a "consciousness raising" as it were. Where something may finally end up happening, because congress critters finally get some direct input. It does go in cycles, there's always a new generation that needs to figure things out, and throw in the people that might have known the situation 20 years ago but it's changed.

On immigration, one thing to keep in mind that the positivity is about legal immigration, not illegal.

I think it might be a major midterm voting issue that the Congress has not managed to do a bill. Both because Trump keeps demagoguing it and because he also seems determined to continue with draconian enforcement against illegals and making things difficult for even green card holders. So many stories about so many nightmares along the lines of yes, as you said "this is our neighbor, he's one of the good ones" just might do it. What all the polls mean combine with what Trump is doing and the whole DACA problem just suggests to me that all voters, even those who supposedly want to be tough on immigrants, want some new laws from Congress on it. Even Trump says he wants that. And they can't manage to do it. It's not going away and looks like it's going to be a factor in the elections for every candidate.