Even Rasmussen is reporting on a New York Times/CBS News poll that shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans want the border secured. The Times, of course, spins it as support for the "compromise" bill in the Senate. It isn't. It is an indication of how angry the voters are. And they are angry.
A New York Times/CBS News poll released yesterday found that 69% of American adults believe illegal immigrants should “be prosecuted and deported for being in the U.S. illegally.” Just 24% disagree and say they should not. The survey of 1,125 adults was conducted May 18-23, 2007.
Ultimately, while supporting prosecution, the poll shows that just 33% of Americans believe that most illegal aliens should actually be deported. Sixty-two percent (62%) say that most illegal aliens who have been here at least two years should be “given a chance to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status.” Giving them a chance to keep their jobs is a continuation of the status quo requiring no change in policy.
Eighty-two percent (82%) of those surveyed believe the federal government could be doing more to “keep illegal immigrants from crossing into this country.” Only 14% said “the U.S. is doing all it can reasonably be expected to do along its borders.” Sixty-one percent (61%) consider illegal immigration a Very Serious problem for the United States. Seventy-five percent (75%) favor higher fines and increased enforcement of employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens.
The attitudes are consistent with virtually all other polling on the issue. Rasmussen Reports data released Wednesday showing that 72% of Americans say it’s Very Important for the U.S. to “improve border enforcement and reduce illegal immigration.” By a 2-to-1 margin (60% to 28%), Americans believe it is more important to gain control of the nation’s borders than to “legalize the status of undocumented workers already living in the United States.”
Most Americans want the problem solved, not plastered over with meaningless layers of bandaids. This is not a slim margin, politicians. This is two to one for beefing up the border.
Ignore that at your peril.
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> < !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
Sure, most people thing controlling the border is the most important thing. That doesn't mean they insist on an "enforcement only" approach. That same Rasmussen poll says:
Still, 65% of voters would be willing to support a compromise including a “very long path to citizenship” provided that “the proposal required the aliens to pay fines and learn English” and that the compromise “would truly reduce the number of illegal aliens entering the country.” The proposal, specifically described as a compromise, was said to include “strict employer penalties for hiring illegal aliens, building a barrier along the Mexican border and other steps to significantly reduce the number of illegal aliens entering the United States.”
Watch the tags, I had to edit your comment.
I am aware of what the poll says. The few vague “details” that have been floated do not appear to hit the mark of what people want. The triggers appear to have a loophole you could drive a truck (filled with illegal immigrants) through from what little has been put out there.
This is going to ruin a number of politician’s careers if it goes through – not that that is a bad thing.
I don’t much care for the pending legislation myself. But I wouldn’t be so sure that it will ruin political careers if it becomes law. Whatever their faults, politicians generally have a pretty good idea of what’s safe and what’s not.
Sorry about the tags.
Pingback: Maggie's Farm
Pingback: Blue Crab Boulevard » Tragedy And Farce All At The Same Time