Thread: SURVEY : STRONG SUPPORT FOR LEGALIZING ILLEGAL ALIENS

Survey: Strong support for legalizing illegal immigrants among local voters

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

A coalition of groups supporting immigrant rights released a poll Tuesday that appears to turn conventional wisdom about immigration attitudes in the county on its head.

The survey of 600 likely voters in the county said 61 percent of respondents agreed with an immigration plan to legalize millions of illegal immigrants similar to the one offered in the Senate immigration bill. That bill was shelved by Senate leaders recently but supporters plan to bring it back to the Senate floor.

Critics said Tuesday that the questions were biased. The survey was conducted between May 29 and June 3 by Santa Monica-based Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates, a firm with a long list of Democratic clients. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

Supporters of immigration reform said the poll shows most people want a policy that legalizes illegal immigrants.

"I think this poll shows there is a silent majority that believes we need practical solutions," said Andrea Guerrero, chairwoman of the Immigrant Rights Consortium of San Diego County, which commissioned the survey.

The coalition includes about 25 labor, legal and religious groups promoting comprehensive immigration reform.

Critics, including a spokesman for Rep., Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said the survey does not accurately reflect voters' views on immigration reform.

"If that were the case, Brian would not have been elected," said Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for Bilbray, one of the staunchest opponents of the Senate immigration bill.

Bilbray, who was elected last year on an anti-illegal immigration platform, is one of five congressional representatives for San Diego County. He is chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, a group of lawmakers seeking stricter immigration policies.

Three of the county's congressional representatives are Republicans who are among the most outspoken lawmakers on illegal immigration. They include Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, a presidential candidate with a platform of stronger national and border security, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, who recently joined Bilbray's caucus.

The countywide survey also found that:


75 percent of those surveyed favored legalizing illegal immigrant children who went to school in the country;

70 percent said they favor a guest-worker program that allows workers to stay temporarily in the country.

Moreover, the poll said that a majority of respondents, 52 percent, oppose building a fence the entire length of the border with Mexico.

Steven Camarota, research director for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, which supports stricter immigration policies, said the wording of the poll's questions was biased.

"It's a good advocacy poll," Camarota said. "I don't see any neutral questions in the poll. It seems those who designed it have very strong views on immigration and tried as hard as possible to get the results they wanted."

Camarota said phrases such as "paying fines and back taxes, proving good moral character and learning English" in the question about legalizing illegal immigrants, are misleading.

"These are fun questions," he said. "Since the Senate does not actually require back taxes be paid. It just says you have to show you paid taxes."

However, David Mermin, a partner at Lake Research Partners, a Washington-based polling company that also has many Democrat clients, said the questions are fair since they closely resemble the Senate proposal. He said most polling firms work for one side or another, but that doesn't mean their methods are invalid.

"We don't serve our clients by giving them bad data," Mermin said. Giving them a full picture of public opinion allows clients to "be effective advocates for their position."

Guerrero said not all results were favorable to the group, which she said was evidence of the survey's attempt to be fair. She said the group paid for the survey with $26,000 worth of donations from private individuals.

Most respondents, 54 percent, said they supported authorizing local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws. Respondents were also closely divided when asked whether they would support city ordinances banning landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. Forty-seven percent said they favored them while 45 percent opposed them.

"We wanted to show the good, the bad and the ugly," Guerrero said.

-- Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.


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who in the heck did they survey? What about the zogby poll from a couple days ago?


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I don't believe this BULLCRAP for one minute!!! This makes me angry b/c they are trying to spin the facts. There is not ONE person I have talked to in the last three months that would want to legalize 20 million criminals!!

Totally don't believe this crap and I feel sorry for those who do. WAKE UP AMERICA!!

"The survey of 600 likely voters in the county said 61 percent of respondents agreed with an immigration plan to legalize millions of illegal immigrants similar to the one offered in the Senate immigration bill. "
I gather the 600 likely voters are actually illegal.

Borderfox, did you see the poll results, they only polled 600 people, and I would be willing to bet many of them were sort of OBL supporters.

A whopping 600 people eh? Well I guess that means the ENTIRE country is behind this BS!

What a joke.

I trust their info as much as i trust kennedy. I bet they asked one illegal the same question over and over again to get those numbers. That rag is so out of touch with the public it should only be used to line bird cages.

I could get poll results like this too standing in the middle of a Cinco de Mayo Celebration, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, in a lot of Catholic Churches...

No brainer! Random sampling of the general population will not yield these results. They know it and we know it and polls like these make them look as dumb as they are.

Dixie

I bet the poll was in Spanish. We don,t believe you and we want you to leave our country now!

This poll has no weight, people can see it for what it is Trash!

Welcome ChicagoEd!

I loved Congressman Bilbray's comments where he states this poll doesn't represent the true American majority.

How can they claim the "majority" when they've only polled 600 people?

What did they do, stop at a home depot with a translator and poll the 600 illegal day laborers or something?

SHEESH!