America's Voice Blog

Posted 05/09/11 at 12:03pm By Mahwish Khan

Approximately 3 in 4 Americans Support Path to Citizenship and Want Immigration Solutions

pew research immigrationNew polling shows that by a 3:1 margin, Americans want a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. This confirms that Republicans are blocking the solutions that the American people want. 

The timing is interesting. Released one day before President Obama gives a major speech on immigration at the U.S./Mexico border, this new poll from Pew Research Center underscores that Americans are well ahead of some in Washington when it comes to understanding how to fix the broken immigration system. 

The poll finds overwhelming 72%-24% support for a path to legal citizenship for the undocumented, “provided they pass background checks, pay fines and have jobs.” For you more visual folk, that's approximately three out of four Americans who believe in a path toward citizenship.

Pew divided voters into eight distinct subgroups, and support for the path to legal citizenship was at least 58% among seven of the eight subgroups. The eighth, which was the “staunch conservatives” subgroup, was split 49%-49% on the topic.

Yet many Republicans in Congress, led by Representatives Lamar Smith (TX), Elton Gallegly (CA) and Steve King (IA) continue to push for enforcement-only approaches or hide behind the empty "border security first" argument. However, the public understands that a lasting and workable version of immigration reform must also include a path to legal citizenship for the 11 million undocumented people living in our nation, once again showing that Republicans are almost clueless on what the average American thinks or wants.

Clearly, Republicans in Congress are on the wrong path, and this poll provides more evidence of it.

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Posted 04/07/11 at 12:30pm By Mahwish Khan

Younger Voters Support Immigration Reform, Reject Divisiveness

Immigration Reform NowOften, we've written about the importance of the Latino vote in American politics. The recent census numbers focused the attention of the political punditry on the growing power of Latinos in America.  And, we’ve been very clear that public opinion research shows that immigration is a key concern for that fastest-growing voting demographic.

But there’s another key demographic that shows increasing support for immigration reform. And it bodes well for the future, because, well, it is the future. Polling shows that support for immigration reform is increasing, particularly among younger Americans. Yes, younger Americans strongly support immigration reform and immigrants. The anti-immigrant wedge doesn’t work with them.

Tim Rutten from the Los Angeles Times looked at the numbers in a Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California poll and from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:

The [LA Times/USC] survey found that nearly 60 percent of respondents younger than 45 felt immigrants are a benefit to California and 68 percent feel they should be able to keep their jobs. In other words, opinion on immigration may be shifting in much the same way that it has on same-sex marriage: Younger Americans no longer accept the orthodoxies that once made both questions such divisive wedge issues.

Last month, for example, a Washington Post/ABC poll found that 53 percent of Americans now believe that same-sex marriage should be legalized. Like many such surveys, a recent nonpartisan Pew Research Center poll found that approval is strongest among younger voters. Similarly, a study in September by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 51 percent of Americans under 30 believe that “immigrants work hard” and “are not a burden,” while 65 percent think they “strengthen society” and “don’t threaten American values.”

In other words, two once-powerful political wedges appear to be crumbling because Americans, who for most of their lives have lived and worked alongside openly gay and lesbian people and immigrants, have drawn conclusions from experience rather than fanciful rhetoric.

Makes sense to us.

Opponents of immigration reform use scare tactics and try to dehumanize immigrants. That’s a lot harder to do when people know, go to school with, work with and generally, just live among immigrants. That’s life in the United States for most younger people. This trendline is moving in the right direction.

But there's a warning here for the GOP. The party is letting advocates of mass deportation, Representatives Lamar Smith (R-TX),  Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Steve King (R-IA), set its immigration strategy. They thrive on divisive wedge politics. But, following their lead is bound to alienate Latino voters -- and young voters. There's not much of a future without either.

Posted 03/11/11 at 10:29am By Mahwish Khan

In Idaho, 73% Support Creating Program to Allow Undocumented Immigrants to Stay in U.S.

Polling ClipboardThere's been a lot of discussion about immigration policy in the states. Arizona and Utah have garnered a lot of attention. But, an article this week on Yahoo Noticias pointed us to some very interesting findings on the issue in Idaho.

A poll of Idaho residents, conducted by Boise State University’s Public Policy Center late last year, showed some expected -- and surprising -- results on immigration. Check this out:

Immigration

•    Two-thirds of survey respondents (67 percent) think immigration is a problem in Idaho.

•    Just over 62 percent believe counties should deny indigent health services to undocumented workers; 31 percent disagree.

•    58 percent of respondents think Idaho should pass an immigration law similar to one recently enacted in Arizona, and 55 percent think such a law would reduce illegal immigration.

•    More than 7 of 10 respondents (73 percent) think that a program should be created to allow illegal immigrants to stay in this country permanently.

We added the emphasis to that last point.

Of the immigration questions, the one with strongest support from Idahoans was about finding a way to let undocumented immigrants stay in the U.S.

Last fall, then-Congressman Walt Minnick (D) launched a series of vicious anti-immigration attacks on his GOP opponent, Raul Labrador. Trust us: Labrador is no champion of immigration reform, but it's clear now that Minnick's attacks were way off-base. The people of Idaho, like most Americans, want practical solutions.

Posted 08/17/10 at 03:07pm 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 02/03/10 at 03:15pm 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 01/27/10 at 10:16am 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."

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Posted 01/19/10 at 11:07am 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 01:22pm 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 01/05/10 at 11:00am By Jackie Mahendra

Latest CIS Poll on Faith and Immigration Raises Eyebrows

FaithSomething is clearly amiss when it comes to the latest Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) polling on immigration. Not that it’s a huge surprise, coming from the same "think tank" whose leader recently argued that Judge Sotomayor should change her name to sound more “Anglo...”

In December, the anti-immigration organization hired the polling firm Zogby International to conduct a survey that claims to have found broad opposition among people of faith for comprehensive immigration reform.  While it’s unsurprising that CIS would try to push back against recent public proclamations in support of immigration reform from Catholic, evangelical, and Jewish faith leaders, by steering poll results toward the organization’s desired conclusions, the poll runs smack into some fairly troubling breaches of methodology.

Not only did questions in the CIS-sponsored Zogby poll appear engineered to produce anti-immigration responses, but, most importantly, those who participate in online panels, on which the results were based, are simply not a random sample of the general population in the fashion that a true random digit dial telephone poll is.

So great are the discrepancies that Dr. Robert P. Jones, president of Public Religion Research, concludes in a recent memo:

The CIS/Zogby poll has serious methodological shortcomings, and results should be viewed with considerable caution.

Incidentally, for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Zogby conducted an October 2008 poll of 1,000 U.S. Catholics nationwide that showed broad support for immigration reform.  The poll found that “69 percent of Catholics polled supported a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, provided they register with the government; 62 percent supported the concept if they were required to learn English.”  

Instead of the online only, opt-in methodology, the USCCB poll relied on the tried-and-true method of a random telephone sample.  In other words, it asked an actual sample of people what they thought.

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Posted 10/28/09 at 07:39am By Lynn Tramonte

CNN Immigration Poll Redux: 2/3 Favor Legalization Over Deportation

fuzzy mathHere’s the headline CNN put on a poll it released last week, which has already made the rounds on Lou Dobbs Tonight, and all the top immigration-restriction websites:

CNN Poll: 3 out of 4 want illegal immigration decreased

Sounds pretty tough on immigrants, right? Rough week for common-sense immigration reform? Actually, no. 

See, CNN asked whether Americans wanted more or less illegal immigration. Since both advocates and foes of comprehensive immigration reform agree that more illegal immigration would be undesirable, this question doesn’t say much.

Real reform means a streamlined immigration system that people go through and not around, as well as creating a pathway to legal status for the undocumented immigrants already living, working, and raising families in our country.

CNN could have just as easily released their poll with this headline:

CNN Poll: 2 of 3 Americans want immigrants legalized, not deported

Sounds a bit different, eh?

Click here to read more.

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