Poll: Most Americans Back Immigration Legislation
Most Americans back a guest-worker program and a proposal allowing illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens that were part of legislation the Senate shelved last week after it failed to gain sufficient support. A new Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll shows that at least a plurality of Americans favors the two most contentious provisions of the bill, the proposal to offer 12 million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship and the program for temporary workers. Of a third provision — a point system for immigrants based on professional qualifications — many say they don’t have enough information to have an opinion. Moreover, most of those surveyed appear to reject one of the central arguments deployed by the bill’s opponents: The poll finds that less than a third of all respondents, including Republicans, believe illegal immigrants take jobs away from Americans who need them.
posted by Leo at 7:51 PM
3 Comments:
You cite one severely flawed poll. The vast majority of polls show that Americans are against illegal immigration by a 2 to 1 margin.
In fact, a Rasmussen poll indicated that only 16% believed the amnesty bill (S.1348)would actually reduce illegal immigration.
Regardless what the poll says about Americans not believing illegal aliens take their jobs, proof is abound that they do.
Furthermore, Gallup's poll indicated that only those unfamiliar with illegal immigration issue support a path to citizenship and a guest worker program. While those who have followed the issue closely oppose those measures three to one.
Gallup went on to say, that the more familiar people are with the legislation or the issue, the more likely they are to oppose illegal immigration and the amnesty bill.
The vast majority of those favoring illegal immigration or open borders and the amnesty bill are among the 50% of the people who lack familiarity with the issue. We certainly shouldn't use this group of people as guidance for this policy.
Just today, Rasmussen published another poll indicating only 20% want the Senate and President to take up this legislation again. Clearly the will of the people is against this amnesty bill and illegal immigration in general.
I was going to make a post on this same subject, but since I have given so many comments about it, I thought not too.
We have laws on the book, let's try to enforce them before we make any other steps.
On my other site Let's Talk About It, I tagged you with the Thinking Blog Award.
Ct, and Let's Talk, Thanks for the comments. Truthfully I feel so blah today, I'm not in the mood to even respond, but I'll give it a whirl anyway. Let's talk, it would be great if we were enforcing the current laws, but were not and frankly I don't believe it will matter if we pass new legislation or not, because Bush and his administration has no desire to enforce immigration statues period, since it would interfere with the flow of cheap labor to his business buddies. Thanks for the Thinking blog tag by the way. Ct, as for this poll, it may very well be flawed as most polls are including more than likely the one's you cite. As for the whole, only people unfamiliar with the legislation support it argument, frankly I believe that has more to do with the fact that this is an extremely partisan issue and the people who care the most about it are the ones who hate the legislation and have a serious issue with immigration in general, hence they follow it closely and show up in a poll as being well informed compared to those who do not think illegal immigration is ,"the biggest, most important issue in the land". Personally, I think that the fact that the country is having this huge discussion on illegal immigration suddenly is somewhat of a red herring, in that it serves to take away attention from some other major issues, the Iraq war for example, but that's just my gut feeling and I've been as guilty of it as anyone lately. The only other thing I would point out is that right now, without any new legislation or action, illegal immigrants in this country are currently receiving "amnesty" as nothing is being done or will be done about them anyway.
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