LatinaLista — As much as the proponents of rounding up undocumented immigrants and sending them back across the border hate it, the majority of Americans have made it a point to publicly support one type of undocumented immigrant — the children.
Newly released bipartisan poll about the DREAM Act.
We have seen that whenever a promising young student, who happens to be undocumented, is taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a good number of Americans decry the possible deportation of that student.
Time and time again, I’ve seen readers of Latina Lista, who are vocal critics that any sympathy or empathy be shown to undocumented immigrants, soften their stance when these young students are threatened.
Now, a new national bipartisan poll bears out those observations.
According to the poll commissioned by First Focus, a bipartisan child advocacy organization, 70 percent of Americans favor the DREAM Act.
That’s a 12 percent increase compared to a poll taken in 2004 when there was only 58 percent public support for the DREAM Act.
Over 1,000 people were randomly called by Opinion Research Corporation.
While the poll only asked two questions, the breakdown of respondents along party lines illustrates that 60 percent of polled Republicans want to see a DREAM Act passed.
A response like that gives hope to not only young DREAM Act students waiting for Congress to do something but should serve as an indicator to Democrats in Congress that immigration reform is not as dead an issue as their colleagues would like.
“The future success of our country lies in our ability to cultivate an educated workforce capable of competing in the global economy,” said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus. “We cannot afford to continue losing the talent of so many students who have already been educated in American schools. We strongly urge Congress to take action this year to pass the DREAM Act.”
Comment(1)
Roger Shoaf
“There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” Polls are a lot like statistics. If you rephrase the question you tend to get a different answer.
For example let’s say you took two different hypothetical examples.
Case one is Jose and his wife Maria. They live in Mexico. Both have cousins that are US citizens, have good jobs and have done well.
Both Jose and Maria desire to immigrate to the US, but understand that permission is required to do so. They study English, US history and work hard and save their money while there application is pending with the US immigration authorities.
Diego and Consuela also are Mexicans, and want to come to the US, but instead of taking the approach that Jose and Maria take; they accept an offer from one of El Chappo’s men. They will provide the coyote, and a thousand dollars to carry a package to the US.
Diego and Consuela make it and start their new life in the north. They work hard and their kids are raised here.
Now lets take a poll. If there were only the choice between giving green cards to one Mexican family, would you choose Juan and Maria or Diego and Consuela?
My prediction would be that Juan and Maria would win that contest.
But if the pollster ignored Juan and Maria, and told the tale of Diego and Consuela, omitting the details of their illegal entry and subsequent adventures of forged documents, falsified I9 forms, etc. but instead focused on the children that lived in fear that their families would be torn asunder by the “racist” enforcement policies of a “broken” immigration policy.
Stories are told about the tears of the children as their parents get hauled away. Reports about the harsh conditions of being locked in a jail and facing deportation back to a country they left long ago.
I think it fair to say that there are more folks like Juan and Maria. It might be Janos and his wife in Hungary, or Ivan and his wife in Russia. Perhaps it could be a couple from Zimbabwe, or an Armenian couple. Perhaps it is a Punjab farm worker or a couple from Indonesia.
In any event, the fact does not change that there are many more potential immigrants than there is capacity to absorb them in the United States. For this reason Congress has placed limits on immigration. When a citizen of another country decides to violate our immigration laws they do so at their own peril.
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