Qualtrics poll: Most Americans favor deportation for illegal immigrants

Qualtrics, an Internet-based survey group, found that 68 percent of respondents favor deportation as the answer to illegal immigration; another 20 percent feel that illegal immigrants should be given legal status and a chance at citizenship.

Q&A: Common misconceptions about immigrants

We spoke to Shuya Ohno, who works with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), about stereotypes regarding immigrants to the United States.

Q: What is one of the greatest misconceptions Americans harbor regarding immigration?

A: I think a lot of people think they take away our jobs. The truth is that at every sector in the economy, we need more immigrants to fill jobs. We know about the agriculture sector, but it’s also construction, and other low-wage jobs. The reason there are so many low-wage jobs open right now is because over the last fifty years, the education level of the American worker has changed; [whereas] fifty years ago about 50% had graduated from high school, now it’s over 80%. The economy reflects that with higher-paying jobs that require college degrees. That doesn’t mean that janitorial and food preparation services have gone away—those jobs still need to be filled. In fact, they need to be filled more so now because there are more people in the country. Studies show that areas with the highest number of immigrants have fairly low or some of the lowest unemployment rates.

Q: Let’s talk about the widespread notion that illegal immigrants choose to be illegal rather than legal in this country.

A: Of course, if they could come in legally they would, but that option doesn’t exist. You have to understand it’s not an easy choice to make to cross the desert, especially with young ones, risking your life. They are fleeing economic and political devastation and persecution. They want a better life just as all generations of immigrants to the U.S. have wanted. If they could come in legally, they would. If the Ellis Island system would stlill exist, all these people would absolutely have legal status.

Q: Misconceptions regarding assimilation are rampant, aren’t they?

A: Yes, another great misconception is that they don’t want to learn English, assimilate, and be Americans. This is simply not true. There’s huge waiting lists all over the country, especially in metropolitan areas, for ESL [English as a Second Language] classes. People want to learn English as it’s critically important. It’s not that people don’t’ want to, it’s that there’s not enough services for them. In every wave of immigration to this country, this is always an attack: newcomers don’t want to assimilate. But by the second generation, their kids are bilingual; by the third, English is the primary language. This was true of Italians, Germans, and absolutely true of Spanish-speaking immigrants today.

Q: What about immigrants and health care?

A: People think immigrants are taking up all the room in the ERs and getting benefits US citizens don’t. The federal government basically is allowing K-12 education for anybody living in the country. It’s good for everyone to keep kids schools. Similarly, ER care should be available for everyone, so this is why immigrants are allowed there regardless of their immigration status. This is misleading in a way because most undocumented immigrants get no public benefits, no welfare, no food stamps—they certainly don’t get health care (no preventative or pre-natal care) so they rely on emrgency care. The use of ER services by undocumented immigrants is very small compared to the per capita use by the general population. Most of the undocumented population are healthy, working age people and they’re working most of the time. They can’t afford not to work. One of the most ridiculous things I ever heard was a Massachusetts state legislator say that immigrants bring in diseases. I don’t want to dignify that with further comment. It’s just absurd.

Q: What of the idea that immigrants don’t pay taxes?

A: [The] former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, said that immigrants—including undocumented immigrants—pay more than their fair share in taxes. Undocumented immigrants pay federal income tax but don’t get any of the benefits a regular tax payer does. These people don’t get tax refunds nor are they granted welfare, food stamps, and other federal benefits.

*Please note!* In the coming weeks, we plan to ask similar questions to a member of an anti-immigration group, as well as other stakeholders such as politicians, immigrants, and more. If you have any specific people in mind, drop us a line.

(This is today's last post.)

Monday blog round-up

A daily feature, here we highlight interesting posts, points of view, and links as recorded on the blogosphere.

• ImmigrationEquality's blog provides some interesting links concerning LGBT people held in immigrant detention centers.
• Nelson Guirado divvies up Americans according to how they view immigration. According to him, the groups are: Immigration Charitists, Culture Preservationists, Redistributionists, and Culturally Confident America Firsters.
  
• Winston Smith at the PoliticalCesspool takes a look back at S.1639.
• Noam Biale of the HuffingtonPost wonders what really killed S.1639.
  

GOP presidential candidates could lose Hispanic support in 2008

As predicted in yesterday's posts, Washington news has readily moved on from immigration reform to the U.S. presidential campaigns. CBS News brings both topics together in a piece that asks if the GOP's candidates risk losing the key Hispanic vote.

The article highlights McCain as one of the few Republicans seeking the nomination who supported S.1639 and goes on to say:

Should McCain end up winning the nomination however, both he and his party may be grateful for his refusal to abandon his support for the bill.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll demonstrates why. While the Republican Party has made strong inroads among Hispanic voters in recent years, the poll indicates a dramatic shift toward Democrats in the midst of the sometimes-emotional immigration debate. The poll found that 59 percent of Hispanics polled either identify themselves as or lean toward supporting Democrats, compared with just 20 percent who identified with the GOP. For a party which received about 40% of the Hispanic vote in 2004, that's quite a change.

While the CBS article doesn't make this conclusion, it seems to us that after a great majority of the GOP blocked S.1639 in the Senate yesterday, the Hispanic cohort is more likely to keep on moving to the Dems' side. And for now, according to the USA Today/Gallup poll, they prefer Hillary.

Friday blog round-up

A daily feature, here we highlight interesting posts, points of view, and links as recorded on the blogosphere.

• Frank Salvato of NewsByUs writes post-S.1639: "Our politicians have become oblivious to their constitutional duty to their constituencies because we have become apathetic to the governmental process."
• Joe Gandelman of TheModerateVoice asks if S.1639 being blocked makes "George Bush now a political lame duck—or a political dead duck?"
• ColoradoMediaMatters reports that two radio hosts in that state "baselessly" asserted that 78 percent of Americans are opposed to immigration reform. The UPI/Zogby poll actually said only 56 percent were.
  

Results of readers' poll on S.1639

These are the results of our readers' poll just before the U.S. Senate cast their votes that blocked S.1639 for the time being. (No more votes will be counted.)

Reader poll: vote before the Senate does!

We want to gauge your opinion so please continue voting—and do so as soon as possible! Send this link to friends. Please don't vote more than once.

Reader poll: Immigration reform bill

We want to gauge your opinion so please vote! Also, send a link to your friends so we can get some substantial numbers.

NYT/CBS/MTV Poll: 30% of young people favor an open immigration policy

The results of the latest New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll, released today, indicate that young people (defined as 17- to 29-year-olds) are—unsurprising to most, probably—leaning more to the left than the general public.

Young Americans are much more open to abortion rights, electing a black or female president, and, in what will interest this blog's readers the most, an open-door immigration policy:

30 percent said that “Americans should always welcome new immigrants,” while 24 percent of the general public holds that view.

UPI-Zogby poll: All U.S. officials should enforce immigration law

Results of a new UPI-Zogby poll were released on June 22. From the UPI article:

While U.S. officials have asked state and local authorities to help enforce immigration laws, some have balked saying it would hurt their standing in immigrant communities.

But 44.7 percent of the 8,300 participants in a Zogby interactive poll strongly agreed local and state officials should help such enforcement and another 24.4 percent somewhat agreed. A total 25.3 percent of respondents disagreed with 12.6 percent somewhat disagreeing and 12.7 percent strongly disagreeing.