There will always be a degree of conflict between those who feel the law should be enforced as written and those who argue for what they feel to be a superior moral vision that transcends mere legality.
Since we all have different ideas about what the higher good is, The temptation will always exist to assign base motives to the other camp. I don’t think the immigration debate is necessarily one between racist xenophobes and smugly superior virtue-signalers any more than I think the abortion debate is one between superstitious theocrats and people who hold life cheaper than ideology.
Unfortunately, it appears there is good money and political advantage to be gained from promoting the alternative approach. I think there will always be a certain amount of friction between policy and morality, and we seem to be in one of those periods where formulaic insult is prevailing.