America's Voice Blog

Posted 02/26/10 at 06:51pm By Jackie Mahendra

CIS-Zogby Polling FAIL: Cooking the Books on Latino Support for Mass Deportation

RecipeThis week the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the “think tank” of the anti-immigrant lobby, announced the results of a new CIS-sponsored Zogby poll purporting to show that people of color, including Latinos, support their mass-deportation, anti-immigrant agenda.

Coming from the same group whose leader, Mark Krikorian, recently argued that Judge Sotomayor should change her name to sound more “Anglo,” and who has previously blamed immigrants for global warming, CIS' viewpoints and strategies are clearly far from mainstream. Still, this latest effort to muddy the waters about public opinion on immigration ventures into the realm of the absurd.

CIS argues that people of color actually prefer enforcement-only approaches over comprehensive immigration reform. They claim that their “poll of Hispanic, Asian-American, and African-American likely voters finds some support for legalization.  But overall each of these groups prefers enforcement and for illegal immigrants to return home.”  The CIS “poll” amazingly found that 52% of Latinos “support enforcement to encourage illegals to go home; 34 percent support conditional legalization.” 

That's right, CIS has cooked up a plan to try to convince us that a majority of Latinos support the mass deportation of the 12 milllion immigrants living and working in the U.S. without authorization. Half-baked polling and research is nothing new for these folks, after all.

What's really going on: the questions in the CIS-sponsored Zogby poll are engineered to produce anti-immigration responses and rely solely on input from online respondents, rather than a random sample of the general population (i.e. a true random digit dial telephone poll).  The findings are a dramatic departure from the results of numerous other (credible) polls of Latino voters (see below). 

Here's a quick Public Service Announcement from FiveThirtyEight.com's Nate Silver, who has called CIS' polling firm, Zogby, the "Worst Pollster in the World":

Zogby International conducts two types of polls. One type are conventional telephone polls. Zogby's telephone polls, while prone to somewhat wild fluctuations and subject to their share of erratic results (such as predicting a 13-point win for Barack Obama in the California primary; Obama lost by 9 points), are actually not terrible, and did fairly well on November 4th.

Zogby, however, also conducts Internet-based polls. These polls are conducted among users who volunteer to participate in them, first by signing up at the Zogby website (you can do so yourself here) and then by responding to an e-mail solicitation. These Internet polls, to the extent they rely on voluntary participation, violate the most basic precept of survey research, which is that of the random sample. And as you might infer, they obtain absolutely terrible results. 

Onto the real research. A May 2009 poll of Latinos nationwide conducted by Latino Decisions found that:

“...over 80% of Latino voters said they supported Obama’s plan that included increased border security, fines for undocumented immigrants, and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants meeting certain requirements – just 14% of Latinos opposed the president’s plan.”

Click here to read more.
Posted 02/26/10 at 12:40pm By Dara Lind

Police to Congress: We Can’t Clean Up Your Mess. “Step Up” and Pass Immigration Reform

When the federal government doesn't act on immigration, local communities feel the pain. Cops, in particular, have come forward to acknowledge that the strain of the broken system is making it harder for them to do their crucial jobs -- to fight crime, day in and day out.

So it makes sense that, this week, police chiefs across the country have been sending Congress a simple message (though they're too polite to put it this way): grow up, take some responsibility, and pass immigration reform that makes all of us safer.

That was the prevailing sentiment from Chief Lisa Womack of Elgin, IL; Sheriff Richard Wiles of El Paso, TX; and Chief Sam Granato of Yakima, WA, when they participated in a telephonic press conference yesterday sponsored by the Law Enforcement Engagement Initiative (LEEI). They called on President Obama and Congress to (in Chief Granato's words) "step up to the plate" on reform. Meanwhile, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran told the Chicago Tribune that he supports comprehensive immigration reform, calling it "morally the right thing to do." The Tribune writes:

Curran argued that legalization would make it easier for potential witnesses to come forward during police investigations. "They're going to be patriotic Americans," he said.

Undocumented residents' reluctance to notify police when they are witnesses or victims of crime has been a constant frustration of the law enforcement community as they call on Congress to clean up its mess, and it was a theme of yesterday's LEEI call as well.

"What we see is people afraid to step out of the shadows to report a crime or be a witness," Chief Granato said, as reported in the Yakima Herald Republic.

Click here to read more.
Posted 02/26/10 at 11:04am By Maribel Hastings

‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: E-verify; Detention Centers; & The Hope for Reform

A report commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security and conducted by the research firm Westat reveals defects in E-Verify, the immigration status verification system. E-Verify “doesn’t get it right half the time,” the AP writes, while Univision.com headlines its article “E-Verify’s certainty in doubt.”

News agency Notimex and Hoy (a Chicago daily) report on the Chicago city government’s decision to deny a permit for a march, planned for March 10th, promoting legalization of undocumented youth. The decision has been appealed.

Click here to read more.
Posted 02/26/10 at 10:17am By Jackie Mahendra

‘Trail of Dreams’ in Georgia: Four Youth Face the KKK on “Latino Invasion”

This week I was struck all over again by the power and courage of a very simple act: four young people who decided to take matters into their own hands and make an epic journey from Florida to Washington DC, on foot. Their goal? To raise awareness about the Dream Act and show the urgency of real immigration reform for youth who were brought to the U.S. at a young age.

Gaby, Carlos, Felipe, and Juan are the four bold young people who make up the "Trail of Dreams," but they are also facing challenges along the way. An email I got from their website yesterday suggests that they are entering hostile anti-immigrant territory as we speak. Just last weekend, they came head to head with the KKK in Georgia. The assembeled clansmen were protesting what they call the "Latino invasion" of the United States.

In a post called "Contradictions," Juan writes about the jarring encounter:

Ultimately, the success of today was to be able to stand hand in hand with our friends from the NAACP; singing liberation songs together and acknowledging our united struggle for racial justice. We ALL deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. We all deserve to be acknowledged for our humanity.

Tweeting from the rally, the marchers commented about how sad it was to see young kids wearing the KKK robes. These children were already being taught to fear and hate.

Click here to read more.
Posted 02/25/10 at 11:09am By Guest Blogger

The Grassroots Drumbeat for Immigration Reform

Update: Also check out "Real Boots on the Ground: Immigration Movement to March for Reform," over at Immigration Impact.

Originally posted on Standing FIRM:

On Sunday March, 21st tens of thousands of people will flood the National Mall in our nation's capitol, demanding immigration reform now. From the We March FOR America site:

Our vision of reform includes immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens working shoulder to shoulder to achieve better wages, working conditions, and labor protections.

As activists, organizers and communities ramp up efforts leading up to the march, I want to make sure we highlight the great work happening at the local and state levels too.

In Illinois, a diverse group of organizations and individuals (including faith, labor and community organizations) has pledged to bring over 10,000 people to the march. Led by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the motto of the group is "Friends Keep Promises", with a specific focus on Obama's campaign promise of immigration reform in his first year in office.

Emilio Lozano from local organization Centro Sin Fronteras said:

"It's showdown time. We are united as never before. We will mobilize as never before."

It is, indeed, showdown time. And Illinois is ready to march!

Click here to read more.
Posted 02/25/10 at 10:19am By Maribel Hastings

‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: Tacos for Justice; Census distrust; ankle bracelets

The buzz continues in the Spanish-language press around actions in support of immigration reform and the March 21st march in Washington. EFE recounts an interview with a cook on a food-service truck in Los Angeles who told the news service, between preparing orders of tacos and burritos, how happy he is to be participating in “Tacos for Justice” (“Tacos para la Justicia”) because the movement will allow him to do his part “to win immigration reform and keep families together.” Articles in Hoy (Laredo, TX), Noticia Hispanoamericana (New York), La Prensa (Orlando) and Frontera (Tijuana) also refer to pro-reform activities.

Click here to read more.
Posted 02/24/10 at 10:45am By Maribel Hastings

‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: March in March; Undocumented Left Out of Health Plan; Hate Crimes

The Spanish-language press continues to anticipate the march for immigration reform planned for March 21st in Washington. Notimex quotes Margarita Ramon of Inquilinos y Trabajadores (Tenants and Workers) saying: “We will demonstrate the power and the collective importance of this discontented community.”

Dallas, TX daily Al Día covers a meeting held in Austin in support of reform: “The purpose of the Texas Convention for Immigrant Integration was to send a message to President Obama, Congress and Texas legislators regarding the necessity of immigration reform.”

Click here to read more.
Posted 02/24/10 at 09:03am By Jackie Mahendra

White House to Shakira: “Hope to Reach An Agreement” on Immigration Reform This Year

As we mentioned briefly yesterday, Colombian pop superstar Shakira (Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll) is the latest public figure to call on President Obama to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation with a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Which is pretty significant, considering Shakira got the full Oval Office treatment yesterday:

Lebanese-Colombian singer and activist Shakira got the red-carpet treatment in Washington today, meeting with President Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden at the White House and then joining World Bank President Robert Zoellick to announce a new $300 million initiative for early childhood development.

Via Foreign Policy Magazine:

... Shakira isn't confining her advocacy to education; she also wants Obama to push forward on immigration reform.

White House officials told Shakira that they hope to reach an agreement this year with the Republican Party to legalize undocumented immigrants, her representative said.

Greg Siskind named Shakira yesterday's "Immigrant of the Day," stating:

A lot of politically active performers have been reluctant to embrace immigration reform because of fear of a tea partyish backlash. I'm glad Shakira is not afraid to speak her mind.

As White House officials continue to work to reach an agreement with Republicans, advocates around the country are mobilizing to bring the message clearly to Washington on March 21st.

Click here to read more.
Posted 02/23/10 at 03:40pm By Jackie Mahendra

GOP Plays ‘Immigrant’ Card to Block Progress AGAIN: First Sick Kids, Now Unemployed Americans

Today The Hill is reporting that Repbulican Senators are using immigration wedge politics to try to poke holes in the new jobs legislation moving forward in Congress:

The GOP expressed worries that the $15 billion jobs package crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), does not go far enough to ensure that businesses don't use new-jobs tax credits in the bill to write off jobs given to illegal immigrants.

Sound familiar? It should. Restrictionist members of the GOP have been playing the 'immigrant' card on nearly every major piece of legislation that's come before Congress this session. They started off playing politics with sick kids, but now they are holding jobs for unemployed Americans hostage in order to score cheap political points on the backs of America's most vulnerable workers and families.

A familiar bloc of Republican Senators (PDF) are protesting the Senate jobs bill over supposed fears that the bill’s tax credits for employers would be used to employ unauthorized immigrants.  The reality, according to The Hill, is that the very language in this current jobs bill is the same as language first introduced by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah in tax rebate legislation. In short, it is already against the law to hire unauthorized workers. Reality, however, is rarely the issue with this debate.

The thinly-veiled excuse to oppose legislation based on the "illegal immigration" boogeyman is a worn-out strategy used again and again by some GOP lawmakers, who draw on research by extreme groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform, (FAIR), a recognized hate group, to make their points. These groups have urged their Republican allies to play the "immigrant" card in the stimulus bill, SCHIP, healthcare, the financial crisis, the flu pandemic, and even global warming.

As America's Voice Executive Director Frank Sharry has argued:

...this is a familiar page from the GOP playbook: play off of people's anxieties over illegal immigration with lies and distortion in order to delay or derail something largely unrelated.

Click here to read more.
Posted 02/23/10 at 03:00pm By Maribel Hastings

‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: Shakira comes to Washington; KKK v.s Trail of Dreams; March 21

Today, the Spanish-language press highlighted a protest in Georgia by members of the Ku Klux Klan against the walkers of the "Trail of Dreams" who advocate for the DREAM Act.  The four advocates calling for legalization and access to education for undocumented students began their walk from Miami and plan to continue to Washington D.C.

During a meeting at the White House about the developments to combat child poverty in Latin America, Pop singer Shakira and the President discussed immigration reform. 

Print newspapers, online news agencies, and Television, published articles about the march that will take place on Sunday, March 21 in favor of immigration reform in Washington D.C.

America's Voice has started a new series, ‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration,’ to bring Spanish-language coverage of immigration and politics to a wider audience. Look for daily roundups (in English) of some of the best Spanish-language news.   

Don't forget to check out the latest Spanish-language reporting and analysis on immigration over at MaribelHastings.com.

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