America's Voice Blog

Posted 08/17/10 at 02:07pm By Mahwish Khan

Fox Gets it Right on Immigration Polling… CNN, Not So Much.

Nope. That was not a typo.

A new poll from Fox News finds that 68 percent of voters, including majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, say efforts to secure the border should be combined with reform of federal immigration laws by Congress.  What do voters mean by reform of federal immigration laws?  Sixty-eight percent “favor allowing illegal immigrants who pay taxes and obey the law to stay in the United States.”

In short, voters want a “both/and” approach to immigration reform, which is the essence of comprehensive immigration reform.  Here’s their short analysis:

While more voters think the government should secure the border first (21 percent) than pass new immigration laws (7 percent), most -- 68 percent -- say both should be done at the same time.  That includes majorities of Democrats (72 percent), independents (67 percent) and Republicans (65 percent).

The Fox poll also found that “a 61 percent majority of voters think it is ‘impossible to seal the border’ so there will always be illegal immigrants….  About two-thirds of voters (68 percent) favor allowing illegal immigrants who pay taxes and obey the law to stay in the United States, little changed from 67 percent who favored doing so in 2007.”

Let's compare that to polls that were conducted by CNN in May and July that presented an “either/or” choice.

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Posted 04/09/10 at 01:21pm By Patty Kupfer

What Happened to the Worst of the Worst?: NYT Says “Pull the Plug on 287(g)”

An editorial in today’s New York Times adds to a week of attacks on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), since last Friday’s release of a new report by the agency’s Inspector General that slams the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

According to the Times’ analysis of the OIG report:

The [287(g)] program lacks basic safeguards like data collection and reporting requirements to ensure that deputies don’t violate civil rights. The report also found that fewer than 10 percent of its sample of captured offenders had committed serious “Level 1” crimes, and almost half had no connection at all to violence, drugs or property crimes.

The report reinforces what a leading police association and police chiefs, including William Bratton of Los Angeles, have argued strenuously — that 287(g) undermines public safety. Police officers can’t fight crimes when communities they serve fear and avoid them.

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Posted 04/08/10 at 02:48pm By Guest Blogger

Weekly Diaspora: Busting Immigration Myths

This post is a weekly feature by Erin Rosa, Media Consortium Blogger:

According to a recent study described by New America Media, passing comprehensive immigration reform and providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants  wouldn’t negatively impact the job market for those who are already citizens. This is one of many myths promoted by anti-immigration groups that have recently been busted wide open.

In an interview with Public Policy Institute of California research fellow Laura Hill, New America Media editor Sandip Roy notes, “People say in the current economy with 10 percent unemployment we cannot afford immigration reforms because native born Americans would lose out on jobs. Is that borne out by your study? ”

The answer is no, the study shows. “It won’t cause competitive hardship for native born workers because there is not suddenly mobility among the people being legalized,” Hill tells New America Media. “So this is not a sudden new adverse competition for those already in the workforce.”

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Posted 02/03/10 at 02:15pm By Mahwish Khan

The $4 Trillion Opportunity: Comprehensive Immigration Reform

The President announced his budget Monday, sending many members of Congress into an angry frenzy over $3.83 trillion that Obama had allotted for an array of programs – mostly to fight growing unemployment and strengthen our weak economy.

But some members of Congress -- many of the same who are complaining over the “huge” deficit-- are trying to keep this big secret under wraps:

There is a $4.1 trillion choice in Washington. We did the math, and put simply:

Comprehensive Immigration Reform = $1.5 trillion increase in GDP over 10 years

Mass Deportation = $2.6 trillion loss in GDP over 10 years

How's that, you ask?

A new report called “Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” by the Immigration Policy Center and the Center for American Progress shows that a policy of comprehensive immigration reform would grow U.S. GDP by 0.84 percent over 10 years, or a cumulative $1.5 trillion.

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Posted 01/30/10 at 10:23am By Jackie Mahendra

Senator Graham: Deporting 12 Million Won’t Work, Need a Comprehensive Immigration Fix

Yesterday Lindsey Graham, Republican Senator from South Carolina, stood up for a comprehensive fix to our badly damaged immigration system. Graham has been crafting bipartisan legislation with Senator Schumer for some time now, and details of the bill are expected soon.

Senator Graham makes the case, in an interview with Brian Goldsmith, that the frenzied attempts to define comprehensive reform as "Amnesty" are as ludicrous as the enforcement-only alternative to real reform: the dangerous (and costly) notion that we can deport or jail twelve million people-- the number of unauthorized immigrants currently in the U.S.

Marc Ambinder reports for The Atlantic:

BRIAN GOLDSMITH: You're one of the few Republicans fighting for comprehensive immigration reform, which most Republicans have called amnesty. Where do you think that stands?

SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well I think the idea of border security as a confidence builder is the way to start. Most Americans are very practical and reasonable. They're upset about broken borders and our out-of-control immigration system. They will buy into a comprehensive solution if we can prove to them, and only if we can prove to them, we don't have twenty million more illegal immigrants, ten years, twenty years down the road.

And when it comes to the illegal alien population, if the definition of amnesty is you got to deport twelve million people, or put twelve million people in jail, then we'll never have a comprehensive solution, because that's just not workable, it's not practical.

To me, amnesty would be forgiving people, like Ronald Reagan did, with no consequence, and not repairing the system. Amnesty is what we have today. What I would like to see is the illegal immigrant population come out of the shadows, be biometrically identified, be required to learn English, pay the fines for their crime, and get right with the law. If they want to be a citizen, get in the back of the line, not break into line.

And to my Republican colleagues, I can understand the politics of this is difficult. Big things are hard to do. But I believe in 2008, we lost a lot of ground with the Hispanic community because of the rhetoric and the tone we set on immigration.

The cost of deporting these 12 million unauthorized immigrants has been pegged at anywhere from $100 billion (an estimate by ICE, Immigration Customs and Enforcement) to $230 billion dollars over 5 years (according to a Center for American Progress analysis cited in  the Washington Post), with a loss of 2.6 billion to our GDP. On the other hand, new studies show that immigration reform would bring about a $1.5 trillion boon to our economy.

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the progressive political blog Daily Kos, argues in "Immigration reform would be good for the economy:"

Anti-immigrant forces are hoping the bad economy gives them ammo to scuttle the common-sense legalization of 10-15 million undocumented workers in this country. The thinking goes, since so many Americans have no jobs, there would be little appetite to grant "illegals" the right to stay and work.

That may have some rhetorical power, even if few Americans are lining up to work in slaughterhouses or as day laborers. But fact is, normalizing their status would be a huge boost to the economy.

Bottom line is that the Senator is right: when it comes to immigration reform, we can't afford to wait. Or to take the simplistic "No Amnesty!" bait.

Posted 01/27/10 at 09:16am By Mahwish Khan

After TPS Granted for Haitian Immigrants, Groups Rush to Demonize, Demagogue

Earlier this month, President Obama and a bipartisan group of members of Congress did the right thing by granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitian immigrants already in the United States. Granting TPS was a welcome and timely move that reinforced American values at a time of great international turmoil.

It was a move that we, and many other organizations, applauded with the advertisement to the right, which appeared in Roll Call last Thursday, January 21st.   

Since then, as Andrea Nill at the Wonk Room points out, anti-immigration policy organizations and anti-immigration legislators began spouting nonsense like, "Haiti’s So Screwed Up Because It Wasn’t Colonized Long Enough" and "Undocumented Haitians Should Be Deported, Haiti In ‘Great Need Of Relief Workers" immediately following the tragedy. Blogger Duke at The Sanctuary quotes the anti-immigration "think tank" director, Mark Krikorian, in "Krikorian: Problem with Haiti- slavery ended too soon."

Click here to read more.
Posted 01/19/10 at 10:07am By Jackie Mahendra

Center for American Progress: Public Strongly Backs Immigration Reform

The Center for American Progress has a great snapshot of public opinion on immigration today. The piece begins:

There’s no doubt the politics of immigration reform are very complicated and that getting a bill through Congress will not be easy. But it’s important to be clear that the public is quite supportive of immigration reform, especially reform that is comprehensive and does not simply focus on punitive measures. This has been true of the public for some time and a new Benenson Strategy Group poll for America’s Voice demonstrates that it is still true today.

That's right, when it comes to public opinion on immigration, the numbers have it. According to the latest research, a whopping 87 percent of people support three of the major elements of comprehensive immigration reform, which includes creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who register with the government, meet requirements, pay taxes, and study English.

In addition, when asked push-button questions on immigration, most Americans respond that we'd be better off turning unauthorized immigrants into full taxpayers, instead of sending them home to free up jobs for Americans (the argument many anti-immigration pundits are making). Check out the chart:

View the rest of their snazzy graphs here.


Posted 01/15/10 at 12:22pm By Frank Sharry

Don’t Leave it to the Pundits, Even Palin Proves Them Wrong on Immigration

Inside-the-beltway conventional wisdom, which is usually wrong, is way off on immigration reform. 

Pundits and unnamed politicos have long been arguing that Congress won’t deal with reform in 2010. But, according to an article in today’s Politico, not only is immigration reform in the mix, it’s got a pretty fierce champion in the Senate:

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is heading for a collision with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) over whose pet issue will get top billing in the Senate later this year.

Schumer is taking a lead role in immigration — and is pushing Democrats to prioritize a potentially toxic issue leading up to the November elections. Kerry is a lead negotiator on climate change and is demanding that a climate bill get pushed to the front of the line.

Kerry and Schumer — who have a history of competitive tensions — are maneuvering behind the scenes to get White House and Senate leadership to promise to give their respective issues time this spring.

At America’s Voice, we don’t know if the premise of the article – a conflict between two leading Democrats on two crucial progressive priorities – is true. We do know that Chuck Schumer has taken the lead on pushing comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

And, that should capture the attention of pundits.

Schumer is well-known for his political acumen. He helped lead the Democrats from a caucus of 45 in 2006 to the majority of 60 they now have.  Last year, one of the geniuses at FOX News regurgitated the blatantly inaccurate, yet widely held, assessment of the issue:

This radioactive topic always lights the Republican fires as well, a dangerous political weapon against Democrats.

But, since that “fire” was lit back in 2006 Schumer led the Democrats into their majority, Democrats took control of the House and Barack Obama was elected with the help of a huge Latino turnout in formerly red states of Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. Some fire. But, that’s what D.C. insiders – and Fox News -- think.

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Posted 01/13/10 at 12:49pm By Mahwish Khan

Drum Major Institute: CIR ASAP “Makes the Grade,” Let’s Not Pass the Buck

A new analysis by the Drum Major Institute (DMI) found that the Comprehensive Immigration Reform ASAP bill introduced by Congressmen Solomon Ortiz and Luis Gutierrez late last year would "make the grade" for strengthening and expanding America’s middle class. DMI states the case succinctly:

The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act sets the standard for an immigration policy, which will boost our nation’s economy and strengthen and expand its middle class. 

The Institute administered a two-part "middle class test," which the bill passed with flying colors. The legislation was given a soaring "A" for "bolstering the contributions immigrants make to the U.S. economy," and a solid "A-" for "its potential to end the exploitation of undocumented immigrants that threaten the wages and working conditions of America’s aspiring middle class."

That’s a pretty good-looking report card.

An additional study this week, from Manuel Pastor of the University of Southern California Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, examined the potential economic effects of comprehensive reform on the state of California.  The study finds that “newly legalized immigrants earned higher wages, spent more consumer dollars, paid more taxes and helped create jobs,” leading to an economic boon of $16 billion to the state.  

As Pastor stated:

People keep using our economic condition as an excuse to not do comprehensive immigration reform. It’s just the opposite: What we need to do to right our economy and move forward is create a path to legalization.

As California battles severe budget shortfalls, legislators should take note that real immigration reform would increase revenue, boosting the "state and local tax base by about $350 million in the short run."

That's no chump change. It’s also just the latest evidence supporting an already-compelling case for enacting comprehensive immigration reform ASAP.

Click here to read more.
Posted 01/12/10 at 04:27pm By Jackie Mahendra

Latest “Progress Report:” Immigration Reform Integral to Economic Recovery

The crew over at Think Progress devote today's "Progress Report" to the economics of immigration reform, stating:

President Obama's current focus is, understandably, "jobs, jobs, jobs." However, Hinojosa's findings show that the issues of immigration and the economy are far from mutually exclusive. While anti-immigrant groups use anecdotal evidence to erroneously claim that legalization would be disastrous for the American worker, passing comprehensive immigration reform would not only strengthen the labor market, it would promote needed economic growth. Polling released yesterday additionally shows that 66 percent of voters support a program that requires undocumented immigrants to register, meet certain requirements, and become legal taxpayers on their way to becoming full U.S. citizens.

They dig deeper into a recent study by University of California at Los Angeles professor Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda, which "showed that comprehensive immigration reform with a path to legalization for the nation's undocumented immigrants could generate a cumulative $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) over 10 years." 

In addition, they cite recent research that together demonstrates the vast economic benefits of immigration reform, as well as the impact it would have on all workers. Among these:

  • The libertarian Cato Institute recently found that legalizing undocumented immigrants and creating future legal channels could increase household income by about $180 billion in the 10th year, or a welfare gain of 1.27 percent. (The recent Hinojosa study reached a similar conclusion: $189 billion).

  • Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that the 2006 reform would have generated $66 billion in new revenue from taxes and fees, over a 10-year period.

  • A study by Giovanni Peri, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California-Davis, further illustrated that immigrants "complement" the native-born workforce, boosting the productivity and wages of native-born workers.

Click here to read more.

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