Washington Times! Immigration-poll distortion by New York Times!
Posted on Thursday, May 31 @ 14:25:10 EDT
Topic: guest worker program illegal immigrants
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 The New York Times continues to struggle to keep its editorial-page
agenda out of the news-section immigration debate. On Friday, the Times
ran an above-the-fold, front-page story, "Immigration Bill Provisions
Gain Wide Support in Poll: Majority Favors Path to Legal Status for
Illegal Aliens." The findings, of an NYT/CBS News poll, show that
"there is broad support among Americans -- Democrats, Republicans and
independents alike -- for the major provisions in the legislation."
Taking a "pragmatic" view "on a divisive issue," the article said, "a
large majority of Americans want to change the immigration laws to
allow illegal immigrants to gain legal status and to create a new guest
worker program to meet future labor demands."
But a careful reading of some of the questions highlighted by
the newspaper suggests they were skewed. Poll question No. 1 asks:
"Would you favor or oppose a guest worker program?" Sixty-six percent
of Americans said yes. But what exactly does this mean? The question
only mentions a "guest worker program." But it is unclear whether the
respondents even know what a guest-worker program is, or whether they
knew that the beneficiaries of such a program include millions of
illegal aliens.
Would Americans have voted by more than two to one in
favor of in favor of a question framed as follows: "Would you favor or
oppose a guest-worker program that would benefit illegal immigrants?"
We wonder.
Topics: illegal immigration, NYT, New York Times, polls, lies, fake, liars, cheats, Guest Worker Amnesty bill S. 1348
Another question featured asks: "Should illegal
immigrants get a renewable visa if they pay a fine, have a clean record
and pass a background check?" Unsurprisingly, 67 percent responded
"yes," while just 27 percent were opposed.
But the agency that would
likely be responsible for overseeing the program, U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services, has been skewered by the Government
Accountability Office and other investigators, and it is entirely
possible (even likely) that some of those who "pass a background check"
will be undesirables who pass due to the poor quality of bureaucratic
recordkeeping.
How does such a question translate into a political
mandate for Teddy Kennedy and President Bush?
Buried on inside pages of the NYT or omitted from the print
version were findings that contradicted the front-page lead of the
story. Eighty-two percent of those surveyed believe the federal
government could be doing more to "keep illegal immigrants from
crossing into this country." Sixty-one percent consider illegal
immigration a "very serious" problem for the United States, while 75
percent favor higher fines and increased enforcement being directed at
employers who knowingly hire illegals.
These findings are consistent
with virtually all other polling on immigration. Last week, Rasmussen
Reports released data showing that 72 percent of Americans believe it
is "very important" for the United States to "improve border
enforcement and reduce illegal immigration." By a 2-1 margin, Americans
believe that 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."
As Rasmussen and some of the Times' own polling suggest, there
is plenty of reason to believe Americans are highly skeptical of the
open-borders agenda. Politicians who base their votes on the dubious
political spin by the New York Times may be in for a rude awakening.
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