Thread: Dem poll finds tepid support for immigration bill

Dem poll finds tepid support for immigration bill

(06-20) 04:00 PDT Washington -- A new Democratic poll released Tuesday could spell trouble for the big Senate immigration bill scheduled for another key procedural vote later this week.

With even Democratic voters feeling lukewarm about the compromise legislation, conservatives ratcheted up their attacks on Tuesday, and supporters countered with rallies and prayer breakfasts in what both sides believe will be the last attempt to change the nation's immigration laws until after a new president is elected.

A Democracy Corps poll by Stan Greenberg and James Carville, former advisors to Democratic President Bill Clinton, showed intense voter concern about immigration in battleground congressional districts. Voters were far more likely to support proposals that would tighten the border and stop illegal immigrants from getting government benefits than efforts to legalize the estimated 12 million people living in the country illegally, the poll found.

The bipartisan Senate bill attempts to combine both ideas, along with many other controversial provisions such as a guest-worker program and a new merit-based point system for legal immigrants.

"We do not find very much voter support for the comprehensive Senate bill," the pollsters wrote. Even Democratic voters split -- with 47 percent for and 47 percent against -- after hearing a description of the Senate bill, while most independents and Republicans opposed it.

Testing what they called "demagogic attacks" on the compromise -- labels of amnesty and proposals to make English the official national language -- the pollsters called them "not ineffective." They warned Democrats to find a way to address immigration "in ways that offset the attacks."

The attacks are only increasing -- along with counter moves by immigrant rights and business groups -- as the Senate plans to resuscitate the mammoth legislation after its collapse June 7.

Even though many business and immigrant groups are unhappy with major elements of the Senate compromise, they were even unhappier when it collapsed. While a number of Bay Area immigrant rights groups -- the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, the Mexican American Political Association and others -- have denounced the Senate compromise, other national groups want the process to move forward, hoping that a Democratic-controlled House can change the legislation to their liking.

For the national groups, the prospect of legalizing the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now in the country is a huge prize, and killing that chance now would delay any such effort for two years and possibly much longer.

"We want a bill, we need a bill," said John Trasvina, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "I've gone around the country, wherever I travel, Chicago, St. Louis and California, laying it out on the line. There's this bill, but the alternative is that every day without a bill is a day that families can be separated, (the immigration service) could decide to raid a workplace or a neighborhood. Are we able to tell the community, tough it out for two more years? Because that implicitly is what you're saying when you say you're against this bill, vote no, just kill it."

In a change of tactics from last year's historic nationwide Latino rallies, supporters are converging on Washington this week highlighting specific immigrant issues that have broad public appeal, staging everything from White House prayer breakfasts to children's marches.

The "Dreams Across America Tour" brought 100 immigrants by train from Los Angeles and other cities to show, according to organizers, that "no matter our backgrounds, immigrant or native born, we cherish the values that make this country prosper."

Maria Molina, rallying Tuesday at Lafayette Park in Washington's sweltering summer heat, works in a Porterville (Tulare County) fruit packinghouse. Her father was a bracero farmworker, and her 32-year-old son is an Iraq veteran of the Air Force. "I taught him to be proud of his country," Molina said. "His American dreams have already come true."

Opponents, for their part, have taken to calling the Senate bill "shamnesty" or, in South Carolina, home to a key Republican supporter, Sen. Lindsey Graham, "Grahamnesty." They are continuing to hammer Republicans who support the Senate compromise. The group Grassfire.org is running a new "Where's the Fence" advertisement in Arizona and Mississippi to target top GOP supporters, Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi.

House Republicans, who helped kill last year's immigration overhaul, countered with their own bill Tuesday aimed at the most popular argument against the Senate bill: that the government should enforce immigration laws already on the books before writing new ones.

Reprising a version of the House GOP's "fence bill" from last year, Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad (San Diego County), and other members of the House Immigration Reform Caucus introduced a bill they called Secure Borders FIRST (For Integrity, Reform, Safety and anti-Terrorism) to "mandate operational control of all our borders and ensure better enforcement of current U.S. immigration laws."

"I think the American people are sophisticated enough to know that the way you stop illegal immigration is not to start by announcing you're going to reward illegal immigration," Bilbray said. "I know the senators may think that it's logical what they're doing, the president may think it's logical, but it's as logical to give amnesty at the beginning of immigration reform as it would be to drill a hole in the bottom of a boat to let the water out."

Bilbray has said that last year's fence bill was a political flop because it focused too much on the border and not enough on interior enforcement, especially sanctions against employers who hire illegal immigrants.

In a bow to market realities, however, the new bill they envision would, much like the Senate bill, create a large new guest-worker program for agriculture, with admissions based on market demand.

The Bush administration and other supporters of a broader overhaul have argued that current law is unenforceable because of the lack of a secure form of employee identification and widespread document fraud, and because the law is so broadly out of sync with labor market demand.

Even though the Senate bill has found a second life, it still faces a battery of tough amendment fights from both sides.

E-mail Carolyn Lochhead at clochhead@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... =printable

"I know the senators may think that it's logical what they're doing, the president may think it's logical, but it's as logical to give amnesty at the beginning of immigration reform as it would be to drill a hole in the bottom of a boat to let the water out."

Billbray is right, and it's about time our leaders that we are not a nation of idoits.
They know this bill isn't logical. They are only interested in voting this way to appease their biggest campaign contributors who have bought them out. The ones who have done this don't give a rat's arse about the everyday American who got them elected.

From the article:

"Voters were far more likely to support proposals that would tighten the border and stop illegal immigrants from getting government benefits than efforts to legalize the estimated 12 million people living in the country illegally, the poll found"

Read between the lines on this article. "Voters show tepid support for immigration", means that the politicians are getting slaughtered on this issue! Keep up the good work!

We must keep up the calls, faxes and e-mails! EVERYBODY NEEDS TO GET ENVOLVED, LETS SAVE OUR COUNTRY!! AND OUR TAXES!!


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"tepid" try cold.
Keep up the pressure folks. We need them to eat this bill.

For the national groups, the prospect of legalizing the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now in the country is a huge prize, and killing that chance now would delay any such effort for two years and possibly much longer.

"We want a bill, we need a bill," said John Trasvina, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "I've gone around the country, wherever I travel, Chicago, St. Louis and California, laying it out on the line. There's this bill, but the alternative is that every day without a bill is a day that families can be separated, (the immigration service) could decide to raid a workplace or a neighborhood. Are we able to tell the community, tough it out for two more years? Because that implicitly is what you're saying when you say you're against this bill, vote no, just kill it."

Whatcha mean WE Senor'? WE as in the American people have spoken. WE want your illegal population out of OUR country. WE are not responsible for the fact that your illegal compadres came here uninvited, brought along family members and rushed to procreate thinking it would anchor them to OUR country. WE want you to tell the community that WE are sick and tired of paying for them in American tax dollars, culture and lives and to go home and fix their own cesspool countries Comprehende?

We do not find very much voter support for the comprehensive Senate bill," the pollsters wrote. Even Democratic voters split -- with 47 percent for and 47 percent against -- after hearing a description of the Senate bill, while most independents and Republicans opposed it.

Correct, the American people REJECT THIS AMNESTY BILL!