Who Deserves To Belong? Partisan News, Anti‐Immigrant Misinformation, Immigrant Deservingness, and Immigration Policy Preferences

Introduction Anti‐immigrant misinformation has become central to shaping public attitudes toward immigrants in the United States, transforming immigration from a technical policy domain into a symbolic battleground in partisan conflict. Despite the prevalence of misinformation in contemporary immigration discourse, few studies connect misperceptions about immigrants to the moral evaluation framework such as deservingness. This study addresses this gap by examining how partisan information environments shape acceptance of anti‐immigrant misinformation and, through the misinformation acceptance, structure moral evaluations of immigrant deservingness and attitudes toward restrictive immigration policies. Drawing on van Oorschot's CARIN deservingness model, the study extends it by introducing a sixth dimension—safety—reflecting the prominent narrative in the United States linking immigration to crime and public insecurity. Literature Review Three strands of research frame this inquiry. First, misinformation literature shows that falsehoods do more than distort factual beliefs; they also shape moral framework and standards people use when evaluating social groups. Second, existing research often examines anti‐immigrant misinformation within a single media context—typically social media—while far less work compares how different media environments influence its impact. Third, misinformation is deeply rooted in socio‐political identities, with recurrent frames (crime, economic burden, cultural incompatibility) circulating most forcefully in right‐leaning media. The study proposes three hypotheses: (H1) conservative cable news exposure is positively associated with misinformation acceptance, while liberal cable news and traditional news is negatively associated with it; (H2) misinformation acceptance is negatively associated with all deservingness dimensions (control, attitude, reciprocity, identity, need, and safety); (H3) higher deservingness perceptions (control, attitude, reciprocity, identity, need, and safety) are positively associated with opposition to restrictive policies. This study also asks three corresponding research questions to examine the partisan subgroup differences. Method A nationally representative online survey of 1158 US adults (April 2025) measured media exposure, misinformation acceptance (six items, α = 0.78), deservingness (five retained dimensions after excluding attitude due to low reliability), and policy opposition (three items, α = 0.81). Path analysis with BCa bootstrap CIs and separate models for Republicans (N = 457) and Democrats (N = 424) were employed. Findings Conservative cable news is strongly associated with misinformation acceptance (β = 0.47), while liberal cable news (β = −0.29) and traditional news (β = −0.22) reduced it. Misinformation eroded all deservingness dimensions (β = −0.10 to −0.21). Need, control, and safety increased policy opposition; identity decreased it. Partisan models revealed distinct pathways: Republicans’ misinformation acceptance was driven by conservative cable news and reduced by liberal cable news; Democrats’ was driven by conservative cable news and reduced by traditional news. Policy opposition among Republicans was shaped by need and control; among Democrats, by need and safety, with identity reducing it. Discussion The results indicate that misinformation functions simultaneously as an informational and moral mechanism, reshaping the criteria through which inclusion is morally justified. Conservative cable news amplifies misinformation across partisan lines, while traditional journalism plays a corrective role primarily among Democrats. These findings help explain why factual corrections alone often fail to shift immigration attitudes: When misinformation aligns with underlying moral schemas, correcting facts without addressing moral interpretations is insufficient. Interventions may need to target multiple moral dimensions—particularly safety, control, and identity—to counteract anti‐immigrant misinformation. The study also highlights television's continued role in disseminating partisan misinformation, suggesting that an overemphasis of misinformation studies on digital platforms may neglect populations reliant on legacy media.