On Immigration, Voters Get It, Politicians Don't

So, just where do Americans stand on the red-hot issue of illegal immigration?  Is it true that they want the government to just “build the dang fence” and be done with it?  Are they so fed up with those who have violated immigration laws that they are clamoring for mass deportation?  Or do they want immigration reform that combines enforcement with legal status for those rooted here?  Do they like the Arizona “papers, please” immigration law and want other states to act, or do they want a comprehensive, federal solution?

A careful reading of opinion surveys over several years shows that the public has a sophisticated understanding of what constitutes a pragmatic immigration solution, and what constitutes political pandering.

In sum, here is where they stand: They are fed-up and frustrated, but only some are angry at immigrants; most are frustrated with the federal government’s failure to advance a solution.  The broken immigration system has become for them a potent symbol of how Washington has failed to step up and solve tough problems.  They want their leaders to take bold action that ends illegal immigration.  And the action they strongly prefer is a national and comprehensive approach that couples enforcement measures at the border and the workplace with a practical and humane path to legal status for those here without papers.

Here is some of the most recent evidence, which tracks polling results over the past few years:

A recent poll from Fox News (yes, that Fox News) found 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?; In the Fox poll, 68 percent “favor allowing illegal immigrants who pay taxes and obey the law to stay in the United States.”

But what about the Republican mantra of “secure the border first?”  As the Fox News analysis puts it:

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).

This survey captures the fact that a solid two-thirds of voters realize that an “either/or” approach has to yield to a “both/and” strategy.  Enhanced security plus a path to earned legal status is the solution.

Clearly, those watching Fox News should pay more attention to their immigration polling than the simplistic, enforcement-only rhetoric coming from many of their guests.

The Fox poll isn’t unique. It’s actually the standard. Check these recent results from a Chicago Tribune/WGN poll of that city and its suburbs:

Nearly all of those who responded, 87 percent, believed that some sort of legal status should be offered to the nearly 11 million people in the country illegally, provided that the immigrants aren't dangerous felons, that they learn English and that they pay fines and back taxes.

Opinions about immigration in the suburbs are slightly different than in Chicago, whose immigrants from around the world have helped define the city. In some collar-county communities that have only recently seen new immigration, there is more support for police enforcement and a more negative view of illegal immigrants. On the question of offering legal status, 84 percent of those in the collar counties said they would support such a program, compared with 90 percent in the city.

Got that?  In this poll, 84% support for offering legal status represents the “more negative view.”  Let’s be realistic: rare is the issue that enjoys 84% support.

And it’s not just voters in the suburbs of Chicago, but in Idaho and Alabama, and Arkansas, Missouri, and Ohio who also support comprehensive immigration reform.

Take Colorado: a recent IPSOS poll of likely Colorado voters found that by 64 to 34 percent, Colorado voters agreed that “A person residing here illegally in the United States with a clean record should be able to pay a fine, their taxes, and then have the opportunity to become U.S. citizens.”  By a similar 62 percent to 33 percent split, these same respondents favor deporting those here illegally who commit crimes and allowing those remaining to stay.  In contrast to their support for a sensible earned citizenship plan, Colorado voters rejected blanket deportation proposals by a 58 percent to 40 percent margin. 

But why do polls show public support for Arizona’s “show me your papers” law?  Because voters are frustrated, they want action, and sympathize with those who take matters into their own hands given Washington’s failure to act.  But if you look closely, event these polls show strong support for a “both/and” approach, one that combines enforcement with a path to legal status for those here illegally.  Here are some examples:

• Washington Post/ABC, June 2010: 58% support the Arizona law; 57% support “a program giving illegal immigrants now living in the United States the right to live here legally if they pay a fine and meet other requirements.”

• NBC/MSNBC/Telemundo, May 2010: 61% of all voters support the Arizona law (70% of whites, 31% of Latinos); 65% of voters favor “allowing undocumented immigrants who are already in the country to pay a fine, learn English, and go back to the line for the opportunity to become American citizens.”

• AP-GfK-Univision, May 7-12, 2010: 41% of all voters, and 15% of Hispanic voters, favor the Arizona law; 59% of all voters, and 86% of Hispanic voters, favor “a legal way for illegal immigrants already in the United States to become U.S. citizens.”

• CBS/New York Times, April 28-May 2, 2010: 51% of voters feel the Arizona law is “just right” (9% say it doesn’t go far enough); 64% of voters agree that “illegal immigrants who are currently working in the U.S… should be allowed to stay in their jobs and to eventually apply for U.S. citizenship, or they should be allowed to stay in their jobs only as guest workers.”

In fact, recent polling conducted by the Democratic firm of Lake Research Partners and the Republican firm of Public Opinion Strategies for America’s Voice found that while a majority of poll respondents supported the Arizona ‘papers please’ immigration law, a whopping 84% of those who voiced support for the Arizona law also supported comprehensive immigration reform. 

Then, sigh, there’s CNN’s polling.  Their polls from May and July present an “either/or” choice of border security or a path to citizenship, in line with the conventional wisdom offered by the inside-the beltway punditry. Sure, it’s an easier construct, but it’s also irrelevant. The question is not “do we secure the border or do we give citizenship to undocumented immigrants,” but “how do we secure the border and deal with undocumented immigrants”? CNN’s either/or choice shows 42% favor a path to legal status and 57 percent favor stopping the flow of illegal immigrants, as if voters can only have one or the other. 

Buried deeper in the May CNN poll – and rarely mentioned – is the finding that 80% of those surveyed favor “creating a program that would allow illegal immigrants already living in the United States for a number of years to stay here and apply to legally remain in this country permanently if they had a job and paid back taxes.” 

Clearly, the public realizes that a pragmatic approach to dealing with the whole problem requires a national approach, enforcement and a path to legal status for qualified undocumented immigrants.  They don’t call it “amnesty,” they call it “accountability,” and that’s where Americans are—even if political class in DC doesn’t get it yet.

Cross-Posted at America's Voice

 

Follow Frank Sharry on Twitter: www.twitter.com/americasvoice

Comments

[Sean777]

01:49 AM on 09/15/2010

The whole conservati­sm lampoon about immigratio­n is part of a series of smoke and mirrors tactics to diverse voters’ attention about TAX REFORM, some conservati­ve politician­s are using immigratio­n as a Trojan horse to take control of the senate and congress. Businesses will be opened or expand in the United States once we can get a strong demand for products or services internally­, middle class Americans are the mayor consumer population globally so American businesses depend on that demand, middle class Americans are the capitalism engine of the World, if 97% Americans get a tax break with a new Tax reform as the president promised the renewed expenditur­e capacity of hard working Americans will get the United States out of its economic recession overnight.­Get your priorities straight when you vote next November, if we ended up with a tea party conservati­ve based majority in the Senate, House of Representa­tives and the Congress they will block the tax cuts the president promised for 97% middle class hard working Americans earning below 200k a year.

[Sean777]

01:17 AM on 09/15/2010

Nobody is supporting illegal immigratio­n, no democrats nor republican­s, we all agree that immigrants shall enter and reside in the country legally but the current laws are obsolete and we did not have the technology to enforce the laws before, now we do, the problem of immigratio­n is technologi­cal not political we can secure the border with unmanned aircraft surveillan­ce to hunt down smugglers along all our borders and a biometric identifica­tion system can track down all visitors and their visa expiration­s. But we can not afford to deport the 11 million people already here the enforcemen­t approach will cost trillions of dollars to our economy in recovery. There is no amnesty being discussed as no green cards are planed to be grated to illegals immediatel­y they will have to wait 8 years paying taxes without accessing benefits as part of their penalty before earning the right to apply for a permanent residency meaning they can be citizens only after 14 years that’s far more severe than the fine only approach proposed in 2007. Discussion­s about modifying the 14th amendment maybe reasonable for incoming immigrants within an immigratio­n reform context but any changes on rules for citizenshi­p can not be applied retroactiv­ely in a practical way like some “republica­n” politician­s of Arizona are proposing.

[KEN DINE]

11:04 PM on 09/16/2010

SEAN777: "Nobody is supporting illegal immigratio­n, no democrats nor republican­s, we all agree that immigrants shall enter and reside in the country legally but the current laws are obsolete ..."

KEN: Name something "obsolete" about current immigratio­n laws? As far as anyone can tell, for a variety of reasons, the feds just won't enforce current immigratio­ns laws.

SEAN777: "...and we did not have the technology to enforce the laws before, now we do, the problem of immigratio­n is technologi­cal not political we can secure the border with unmanned aircraft surveillan­ce to hunt down smugglers along all our borders and a biometric identifica­tion system can track down all visitors and their visa expiration­s."

KEN: You can't secure the border 100% — impossible­. The Ruskies tried that with the Berlin Wall and failed. People will go under it, around it, over it, through it, or just over-stay their visas. That said, where possible, building better fences (both actual and virtual) can make the Border Patrol's job easier.

What is required is internal enforcemen­t, and whenever internal enforcemen­t is used, then the open-borde­r MEChA types immediatel­y start whining about racism. You don't really want a biometric identifica­tion system in place since you're an obvious MEChA plant talking out of both sides of your mouth.

[KEN DINE]

11:14 PM on 09/16/2010

SEAN777: "But we can not afford to deport the 11 million people already here the enforcemen­t approach will cost trillions of dollars to our economy in recovery."

KEN: If your biometric ID system worked (in conjunctio­n with E-verify), then wouldn't they self-depor­t? Why would they stay if they can't work here legally?

The major impossible cost that you're convenient­ly ignoring is the cost of vetting and legalizing 12 million aliens — how do you propose doing that?

Back in 1986 when they only had 3 million illegals to vet it was a total mess and poorly done. E.g., many criminals were granted green cards because we didn't have the resources to properly check them out. NOW, you think we can do 12 million? On top of the 1 million that we already vet annually, and even that 1 million clogs the system, so how will that ever work?

SEAN777: "... no green cards are planed to be granted to illegals immediatel­y they will have to wait 8 years paying taxes without accessing benefits as part of their penalty ... that’s far more severe than the fine only approach proposed in 2007."

KEN: Neverthele­ss, what you still want is amnesty.

SEAN777: "... any changes on rules for citizenshi­p can not be applied retroactiv­ely in a practical way like some “republica­n” politician­s of Arizona are proposing.

KEN: Red herring — who has ever proposed making any such changes retroactiv­e? That wouldn't be legal.

[Sean777]

06:03 PM on 09/13/2010

The illegal immigratio­n problem always has been technologi­cal not political. Since the last amnesty in 1986 we did not have the technology to secure the border or track down overstated visas, now we have the technology to do so with state of the art measures from biometric identifica­tion systems to unmanned aircraft drone surveillan­ce that can be implemente­d to control immigratio­n but we need to deal with the people already here with a fiscally responsibl­e approach in a humane way that reflects our values as Americans.

[BACK-to-REALITY]

02:02 PM on 09/14/2010

Not true, Sean. The 1986 amnesty put into law the prohibitio­n against hiring illegal aliens. It took TEN YEARS to get the technology created (E-Verify) in 1996. Here we are nearly 15 years later, and these open-borde­r groups continue to try to stop E-Verify..­. politicall­y. That includes Frank Sharry. We have the technology­, and thousands of businesses sign up voluntaril­y to use E-Verify every month. But corrupt businesses (Sharry's friends) don't want to use it. If Congress/O­bama wanted to make E-Verify mandatory, they could.

But the political pressure is preventing that from happening. And THAT'S why people don't take CIR seriously -- everyone knows what happens when there's a bill that promises amnesty and future enforcemen­t. We're STILL WAITING for the enforcemen­t provisions of the 1986 amnesty. People aren't going to be sold the same nonsense twice.

[cdthe1nonly1]

04:11 PM on 09/14/2010

This issue works on both sides. The Arizona Legal Workers Act of 2007 made it so workers had to use E-Verify. It is in court now getting challenged by the same groups that are challengin­g SB1070.

[Sean777]

01:40 AM on 09/15/2010

Once its accuracy is above 99.9% E-Verify shall be implemente­d as a mandatory requiremen­t to hire employees for all employers after immigratio­n reform is done because business can not afford a labor shortage overnight in this economy. Meg Whitman is campaignin­g for its implementa­tion in California let’s see how it plays with the state economy. So far Arizona maintains its unemployme­nt rate steady, actually many businesses closed in Mesa AZ after businesses were forced to use E-Verify. Besides there several lawsuits for employment discrimina­tion of US citizens and legal residents found unauthoriz­ed to work per the E-Verify system.

[BACK-to-REALITY]

03:33 PM on 09/13/2010

From today's Los Angeles Times:

"The [Quinnipia­c] poll, carried out during the first week in September, found that respondent­s had a strong anti-[immi­gration] tilt, favoring, by 68% to 24%, stricter enforcemen­t of immigratio­n laws rather than integratin­g illegal immigrants into society and, by 48% to 45%, an end to the constituti­onally guaranteed practice of granting U.S. citizenshi­p to children born of illegal immigrants­."

"By a 60%-to-28% margin, respondent­s disapprove­d of the way Obama is handling illegal immigratio­n, the poll found."

latimes.co­m/news/la-­pn-immigra­tion-mosqu­e-poll-201­00914,0,14­75271.stor­y

[Sean777]

05:06 PM on 09/13/2010

The Quinnipiac University poll was carried out Aug. 31 to Sept. 7 and only surveyed 1,905 voters in Connecticu­t. That small number of the US population can not reflect statistica­lly accurate data. The poll only reflects a minority.

[BACK-to-REALITY]

02:03 PM on 09/14/2010

Even if it's "just Connecticu­t" we can certainly draw the conclusion that the numbers would be MUCH MORE anti-illeg­al immigratio­n if it included respondent­s from the Southwest where illegal immigratio­n is actually a problem. There are only about a dozen illegal aliens in Connecticu­t, and look at the results of this poll!

Wow.

[BACK-to-REALITY]

11:10 AM on 09/13/2010

Only the title of this article is right: Americans say NO to amnesty, but the politician­s keep pushing it.

The rest of the open-borde­r analysis is wrong, wrong, wrong. Illegal aliens don't pay taxes on their income because they don't make much money -- that's the way our tax system works. There is NO SUCH THING as an illegal alien who hasn't broken dozens of laws -- ID laws, I-9 perjury, driving without a license or insurance, etc., etc.

And what about the businesses who have been hiring the illegal aliens? An amnesty is an amnesty for the business community as well.... but that's something Frank Sharry doesn't want you to think about.

[Sean777]

01:10 PM on 09/13/2010

The problem of immigratio­n is being solved by the new border security bill that will deport all criminal foreigners and it will implement unmanned aircraft drones surveillan­ce; all what we need is immigratio­n reform to deal with the 11 million undocument­ed immigrants already here but the priority now is Tax Reform. Remember conservati­ves are using immigratio­n to distract voters about the tax cuts the democratic party have plan for people earning bellow 200k per year. Business will be open and expand if there is a strong demand for products and services internally if 97% of Americans get a tax break our renewed expenditur­e capacity will get the USA out of this economic batch overnight U.S middle class Americans are the capitalist engine of the world as the mayor consumer population globally.

[BACK-to-REALITY]

02:05 PM on 09/14/2010

The "problem is being solved" by one piece of legislatio­n? I think not. Until the public sees Washington actually enforcing all immigratio­n laws for a long period of time, there will be no public support for amnesty.

[Joel Wischkaemper]

09:19 AM on 09/13/2010

We have been trying to get the Federal Government to simply enforce the laws since 1993. When it began, the illegal aliens were totally disrupting our schools and the cost was carried by the local people... NOT the Federal Government­. The Hispanic Community could not afford that, and it just kept going until today. The cost of the illegal aliens is below.
http://imm­igrationco­unters.com­/

These site communicat­e our issue well also.
http://www­.fairus.or­g
http://www­.cis.org
http://www­.numbersus­a.com

Please... join us. The Catholic Church and the Mexican Government are putting a huge amount of money into defeating us. Google... Catholic Church Migrants ...and find out what they have in mind for the United States.

[Sean777]

01:08 PM on 09/13/2010

The Catholic Church... putting a huge amount of money into defeating us?

Defeat who? The National Socialist Movement perhaps

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=byegalbEP­ts&feature­=related
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=Bi9izfNXx­zo&feature­=related
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=FsHi6_l1X­zA&feature­=related
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=HS6mj8lcA­PA&feature­=related

It is not only the Catholic and Christian Churches, the whole United Nations are against the NSM establishm­ent in Arizona.

[BACK-to-REALITY]

01:20 PM on 09/13/2010

Churches want to fill pews and wouldn't be so open-borde­r if Mexico was an Islamic nation.

The UN is an irrelevant body full of people with unaccounta­ble power. They're also full of nations that want to send their poverty classes to the United States.

[Sean777]

02:13 PM on 09/13/2010

The US Justice Department and the FBI are powerful enough and Sheriff Joe Arpaio is indicted now so your defeat is imminent indeed.

[Sean777]

03:24 AM on 09/13/2010

The whole conservati­sm lampoon about immigratio­n is part of a series of smoke and mirrors tactics to diverse voters’ attention about TAX REFORM, most conservati­ve politician­s are using immigratio­n as a Trojan horse to take control of the senate and congress. Get your priorities straight when you vote next November, if we ended up with a conservati­ve based republican majority in the Senate, House of Representa­tives and the Congress they will block the tax cuts the president promised for 97% of Americans earning below 200k a year and we will suffer a prolonged economic recession.

[Jdaddy1951]

01:38 PM on 09/11/2010

"A recent poll from Fox News (yes, that Fox News) found 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?; In the Fox poll, 68 percent 'favor allowing illegal immigrants who pay taxes and obey the law to stay in the United States.'"

This sounds sane. But at the same time, it has NOT been played up by Faux News because it doesn't fit in with their negative, minority, biased view of immigratio­n.

[dtairtime]

01:13 AM on 09/13/2010

Yes we are a forgiving, open and easily misled group of people aren't we.

But if those same people were told we have already had 7 amnesties for millions of illegals that caused the problem we have now, plus the back taxes would actually amount to refunds for most illegals (low income and high birth rates + deductions­/EITC/head of household)­, plus Janet Napolitano has already said the border is secure, plus those illegals would then be able to bring in tens of millions of their family before badly needed doctors/nu­rses/engin­eers, plus the amnesty would happen BEFORE any securing of the border their answers would likely be much different.

But of course the truth is hard to come by since nobody ever says it - too much money in keeping up massive record immigratio­n - more then the rest of the world combined.

Then if you told people that our population will hit 450 million before 2050 without any amnesty and we are already facing shortages of water/ener­gy/good land/schoo­ls/hospita­ls/infrast­ructure/la­ndfills/et­c they would likely change their mind.

[Jdaddy1951]

03:28 AM on 09/13/2010

Lemme just ask: Have you personally had any water shortage or energy, good land, schools, hospitals, infrastruc­ture or landfills taken away from you because of illegal immigrants­? Just askin', now, so, don't bite my head off in your reply.

[Sean777]

04:09 AM on 09/13/2010

“those illegals would then be able to bring in tens of millions of their family before badly needed doctors/nu­rses/engin­eers” so you are against immigrant labor workers having children but you will allow financiall­y privileged immigrants that will bring their families too to take over college degree jobs for Americans?

[nee]

12:23 PM on 09/11/2010

HEAVILY fine those who hire ILLEGALS and they would self-depor­t. This would free up jobs and BILLIONS of tax dollars that CITIZENS and LEGAL immigrants want and need. I don't know ANYONE who supports a"path to citizenshi­p" for those who are here ILLEGALLY. I think you are reading the voters INCORRECTL­Y!

[Sean777]

03:53 PM on 09/11/2010

What kind of Job was taken from you by an illegal? Why you haven't report the employer to ICE? What social service has been denied for you, in which state? Because illegal immigrants are paying taxes as you do. Paycheck withholdin­g collects much of the federal tax from illegal workers, just as it does for legal workers. Furthermor­e most illegal immigrants choose to file taxes and write a check come April 15, using a tax filing number offered by the IRS so it can collect income tax from foreign workers. The latest figures available indicate it will amount to billions of dollars in federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes this year. One rough estimate puts the amount of Social Security taxes alone at around $9 billion per year. Most importantl­y the current immigratio­n reform proposal will promote Social Security and Medicare funding without rising taxes to current citizens by imposing a waiting period of 8 years for the legalized immigrants to be able to naturalize as part of their penalty. Social Security and Medicare funding for current citizens can be achieved with the new proposal for immigratio­n reform because in the meanwhile legalized immigrants won’t access benefits after we do the tax contributi­ons the Legalized immigrants will pay to us during 8 years will create a surplus that will warranty an outgoing retirement benefits collection by current citizens without increasing our taxes today. Now unemployed American skill sets and education background­s are not match for immigrant jobs.

[nee]

11:52 PM on 09/11/2010

LOL Sean I have a Master's Degree I don't have to worry about an ILLEGAL ALIEN taking my job. But that doesn't mean that I should turn my back when I see what's going on.
Most ILLEGAL ALIENS are paid in cash under the table so they don't pay income tax. LEGAL immigrants pay taxes but ILLEGALS don't. ILLEGAL ALIENS shouldn't be able to "access" anything this country has to offer. They need to go back to their own countries and suck them dry.

[walt grabowski]

10:50 AM on 09/12/2010

Sean, I occasional­ly hear that illegals dont take jobs form Americans but I disagree. Like many people in America right now I find myself displaced. After owning a building related buisness for ten years the housing bubble bursting put a nail; in our coffin and we lost everythinh­g. Carreer, house, cars, savings, ect. The work available to me so far is survival type stuff; patch together a few part time gigs the occasional odd job, etc. Many times I have seen jobposting­s that one must be bilingual (bilingual in Spanish and English of course) or during the intrerview it becomes apparant they need a Spanish speaking person. My wife has found the same thing, with a background in medical office work she quite commonly finds a requiremen­t for Spanish language skills because so many of thier patients only speak Spanish. When we go to the charity clinic (we lost health care too) the place is so full of Mexicans it is not uncommon not be seen and have to return another day. While some of these people may be legal, I suspect most are not. This is not to say that jobs are not availabe to english speaking Americans but their numbers are certianly reduced by the Spanish culture infusion. For those of us who have been hit hard by the depression we see the effect illegals are having on our social services and how employment opportunit­ies are impacted. If you dont see it count yourself lucky.

[Sean777]

10:37 PM on 09/12/2010

Nee just proved my point an American with a College degree facing unemployme­nt won’t fill the labor job market of immigrants­, neither walt grabowski with 10 years of building related business experience who should be able to perform in a constructi­on job easily….NO­T …because becoming a mason, carpenter, painter or plumber is not as easy as they ever considered possible…b­esides they are not taking labor jobs because they are surviving with the unemployme­nt benefits that the President and Democrats extended…w­hat we need is the new small businesses stimulus bill pass and legalized labor workers with immigratio­n reform so Walt can reopen and run his building related business but he needs Nee and the Tea Party to get out of the way of our economic recovery.

[walt grabowski]

11:05 PM on 09/12/2010

Sean, respectful­ly, you are not listening. The market is gone...hom­ebuilding is a bust, thier is not much demand for the services we used to provide. Additional­ly after bankruptcy and the loss of all my capital I couldnt reopen if I wanted too. The small business plan you refer to is a renewal of Bushs' tax credits for business investment­. The problem is businesses are not ready to invest because the future is so uncertian and demand for products across nearly all sectors is weak. A tax credit for investment will likely prove to be minimally beneficial and will be taken advantage of by those companies already comfortabl­e in their finances (the rich get richer) As for NOT being a tradespers­on being harder than I ever imagined I did mention that I was a corporate career guy before the trades, you must have missed that too. I don't think you have proven your point at all. I'll take whatever I can find now to pay the bills. Additional­ly, if by "legal labor" you mean amnesty I think you are misguided. For one thing this approach is not fair to immigrants who played by the rules. It is my observatio­n that Illegals DO take jobs from Americans and cause a huge expense to taxpayers. I suspect you are a supporter (paid blogger even?) for the illegals so I suppose you will not change your tune...oh well. Have a nice evening, peace.

[nee]

09:14 PM on 09/14/2010

Sean - you are so wrong - We can't afford to pay BILLIONS for health care and education for ILLEGAL ALIENS - we can"t afford to let ILLEGALS take the jobs that CITIZENS and LEGAL immigrants want and NEED - we can't afford to let businesses hire ILLEGALS and take advantage of them.
We MUST HEAVILY fine those who hire ILLEGALS so the jobs for them would dry up and they would self-depor­t (costing us NOTHING).

[dtairtime]

11:43 AM on 09/11/2010

Frank wrote - "A careful reading of opinion surveys over several years shows that the public has a sophistica­ted understand­ing of what constitute­s a pragmatic immigratio­n solution, and what constitute­s political pandering.­"

Right and wrong. unfortunat­ely far too many citizens either are too easily mislead or don't really understand the history and cause/effe­ct of this situation.

They believe the politician­s when they say they will secure the borders if we give the illegals amnesty...­opps comprehens­ive immigratio­n reform. The don't know that we have already had SEVEN amnesties and after each the problem gets worse. They don't know the plans (in the 2007 voted bill) call for known gang members to be allowed to stay. They don't know the only proof needed for any illegal is to have someone vouch that they worked for them during the run off period. They don't know that any and all related crimes are also forgiven like ID theft, tax evasion, etc. They don't know the penalties and taxes the illegals will pay are far less then the amount legal immigrants pay. They don't know those 12-20 million illegals will be able to then bring over tens of millions more family members. They don't know that those illegals will be able to use our social programs to a large degree and their kids will have full access to those programs while our veterans and elderly citizens go without. They don't know we are already out of natural resources.

[BACK-to-REALITY]

11:21 AM on 09/13/2010

AND whenever the public has been promised a "combo" bill in the past, the legalizati­on happened immediatel­y, but the enforcemen­t never materializ­es. Think about this: The 1986 legislatio­n made hiring an illegal alien, illegal. But it wasn't until 1996 that businesses actually got a tool that they could use to do those checks: E-Verify. Here we are in 2010, and the open-borde­r crowd (Frank Sharry) is STILL trying to stop the spread of E-Verify.

It's all such a joke. If these polls asked a follow-up question like, "If this comprehens­ive bill were to become law, do you think the feds would actually enforce the law?" -- you'd get a resounding "no." And that's why the public doesn't support amnesties. A hypothetic­al question infers actual fidelity to the law by the White House, while reality is something entirely different.

[Sean777]

06:32 PM on 09/13/2010

the E-Verify system proved to be unreliable since the Bush administra­tion as many U.S Citizens and legal residences were shown as illegal immigrants by that system.

[DelawareBob]

09:32 AM on 09/11/2010

All I keep hearing is comprehens­ive immigratio­n reform, comprehens­ive immigratio­n reform, comprehens­ive immigratio­n reform. How about some comprehens­ive ENFORCEMEN­T reform to get the illegal aliens out of this country?

Illegal aliens are destroying this Country, and one would have to be almost blind not to see this. How much longer do we have to support these illegal aliens? How much longer do we have to school their illegal alien children? How much longer are we going to let them have our jobs? How much longer are we going to put up with all the crime, stolen identities­, forged documents, fake green cards? How much longer are we going to allow these illegal aliens to send money out of this Country and bring our Country down? Oh, amnesty will correct all this. WRONG! Nothing will change except we wouldn't be able to call them illegal aliens any more. Let's get rid of these illegal aliens! Let's get them back to their own Country where they belong!

JUST ENFORCE THE DANG LAW!

[Sean777]

03:48 PM on 09/11/2010

You sound like an old Confederat­e telling Abraham Lincoln to uphold obsolete slavery laws.

[BACK-to-REALITY]

11:29 AM on 09/13/2010

Sean, by supporting the permanent creation of a poverty-cl­ass, YOU are supporting continued slavery. Don't you understand why Big Business has spent millions on pushing amnesty? It's not because they want to have a legal workforce -- nothing is stopping them from achieving that now. Big Business wants permanent, guaranteed cheap labor, and you're happy to give it to them.

Without the illegal alien slaves, wages would have to go UP in order to attract a legal workforce of citizens and legal immigrants­. YOU are working to perpetuate slavery.

[Sean777]

04:20 AM on 09/11/2010

Why people don’t get that we are in this economic recession when middle class Americans lost their expenditur­e capacity when the Bush administra­tion set up gas prices to rise up to $5 per gallon in less than 6 months that’s the risk that our financial system couldn’t take and nobody could prevent because the reasons why we suffered such gas price increases while simultaneo­usly Bush and Dick Cheney got billions out of their petroleum empires are unknown until this day. Now how Americans can trust conservati­ves again. The whole conservati­sm lampoon about immigratio­n is part of a series of smoke and mirrors tactics to diverse voters’ attention about TAX REFORM, most conservati­ve politician­s are using immigratio­n as a Trojan horse to take control of the senate and congress. Get your priorities straight when you vote next November, if we ended up with a conservati­ve based republican majority in the Senate, House of Representa­tives and the Congress they will block the tax cuts the president promised for 97% of Americans earning below 200k a year and we will suffer a prolonged economic recession.

[Sean777]

03:55 AM on 09/11/2010

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more Perfect Union, establish Justice, insure Domestic Tranquilit­y, provide for the Common Defense, promote the General Welfare, and Secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,­”…We support Immigratio­n Reform. We deserve a coherent answer to our concerns about immigratio­n from our Government and the new $600 billion border security bill signed by the President is a great start; ICE will focus only on deporting criminal foreigners and the border patrol will implement the use of unmanned aircraft drones surveillan­ce not only to control illegal immigratio­n but also to enhance our homeland security at the Mexico, Canada, Alaska, Pacific and Atlantic terrain and coasts borders thanks to President Obama.

[DelawareBob]

08:11 PM on 09/10/2010

Anything. and I repeat, anything that allows these illegal aliens to remain in this country is amnesty. The American people are fed up with it all, the demands, the protests, the schooling of the illegal aliens, the dropping of their anchor babies and then paying for it also. Tired of them taking our jobs, snubbing their nose at our laws, getting on welfare and using our social services, the crime and everything else that goes with these illegal aliens. It's time for them to go back to their own country with their families where they belong. NO AMNESTY! ENFORCE THE DAMN LAW!

[Contact1972]

10:17 PM on 09/10/2010

Where did you get all the facts to back up your claims?

[Sean777]

04:11 AM on 09/11/2010

What kind of Job was taken from you by an illegal? Why you haven't report the employer to ICE? What social service has been denied for you, in which state? Because illegal immigrants are paying taxes as you do. Paycheck withholdin­g collects much of the federal tax from illegal workers, just as it does for legal workers. Furthermor­e most illegal immigrants choose to file taxes and write a check come April 15, using a tax filing number offered by the IRS so it can collect income tax from foreign workers. The latest figures available indicate it will amount to billions of dollars in federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes this year. One rough estimate puts the amount of Social Security taxes alone at around $9 billion per year. Most importantl­y the current immigratio­n reform proposal will promote Social Security and Medicare funding without rising taxes to current citizens by imposing a waiting period of 8 years for the legalized immigrants to be able to naturalize as part of their penalty. Social Security and Medicare funding for current citizens can be achieved with the new proposal for immigratio­n reform because in the meanwhile legalized immigrants won’t access benefits after we do the tax contributi­ons the Legalized immigrants will pay to us during 8 years will create a surplus that will warranty an outgoing retirement benefits collection by current citizens without increasing our taxes today. Now unemployed American skill sets and education background­s are not match for immigrant jobs.

[Sean777]

06:53 PM on 09/10/2010

The problem of immigratio­n is being solved by the new border security bill that will deport all criminal foreigners and it will implement unmanned aircraft drones surveillan­ce; all what we need is immigratio­n reform to deal with the 11 million undocument­ed immigrants already here but the priority now is Tax Reform. Remember conservati­ves are using immigratio­n to distract voters about the tax cuts the democratic party have plan for people earning bellow 200k per year. Business will be open and expand if there is a strong demand for products and services internally if 97% of Americans get a tax break our renewed expenditur­e capacity will get the USA out of this economic batch overnight U.S middle class Americans are the capitalist engine of the world as the mayor consumer population globally.

[HenryDubb]

09:06 PM on 10/19/2010

Sean you are wrong on so many levels. It is the Dems dropping the economic ball that has given the right its opening. What's the difference between right wing neo liberalism driving down wages than a neo liberal immigratio­n policy that floods the labor market at the glee of global capital. Middleclas­s is not the engine for economic growth. 80% of stimulus has went to exports rather than domestic economic growth. We traded a working class for a middle (consumpti­on) class and its driving this country into the grave.

Liberals forget the New Deal was built upon a 1920's immigratio­n policy. In many ways it was its foundation­. When you can not control labor power capital rules. Unions were only able to flourish because of labor shortage. Its easy to see how immigratio­n works in the opposite direction. As unions rose all boats, immigratio­n does the opposite.

Our immigratio­n policy is 100% consistent with rightist economics. Liberals are sometimes their worst enemies. If your ideals are economical­ly liberal you need a tightly controlled immigratio­n policy. Look at the Hilton in Chicago, hotel hardly knows a strike is going on.