Morning Plum: Big majority of GOP voters favors mass deportation, poll finds

WashingtonPost.com ^ | 7/27/2015 | Greg Sargent

[GoneSalt]

This new poll finding, courtesy of CNN, is not all that surprising, but it is very illuminating of the demographic challenges the GOP faces right now: A big majority of Republicans believes that the government’s main focus on immigration should be not just on stopping the flow of illegal immigrants, but also on deporting those already here.

The poll asks:

What should be the main focus of the U.S. government in dealing with the issue of illegal immigration — developing a plan that would allow illegal immigrants who have jobs to become legal U.S. residents, or developing a plan for stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. and for deporting those already here?

By 56-42, Americans support developing a plan to legalize undocumented immigrants over stopping their flow and deporting those already here. Independents agree by 58-39, and moderates by 59-40.

But Republicans favor stopping the flow of undocumenteds and deporting those already here by 63-34. So do conservatives, by 55-43. “Those already here,” of course, amount to some 11 million people.

Now, it’s certainly possible that GOP support for deportation is inflated somewhat by the inclusion of securing the border on that side of the question. But even when the question is framed a bit less starkly, as a recent Post/ABC News poll did, a majority of Republicans does not think the undocumented should be allowed to live and work here even if they pay a fine and meet other requirements. This should not obscure the fact that a substantial number of Republicans are, in fact, open to legalization; it’s just that more of them apparently aren’t.

[Sam Gamgee]

Indeed, we are told by the media, even Fox News, no one really thinks we can deport them all. Says who? And why not? Just like “they will do the jobs Americans won’t do” is a oft repeated myth, so is this one.

[dfwgator]

Indeed, we are told by the media, even Fox News, no one really thinks we can deport them all.

You mean that nation that built the first atomic bomb, and the first nation to put a man on the Moon, cannot do this?

[Sam Gamgee]

Love number 3. Add to that a $250,000 fine for every business with 100 employees or less, say $1 million fine for larger companies.

[Sam Gamgee]

My wife finds that term offensive, which I don’t get why. I mean their backs are literally wet from crossing the Rio Grande. Call our enemies what they are.

[BuffaloJack]

Operation Wetback was a real name and a real activity during the Eisenhower administration. WW2 was over and literally millions of returning GIs were out of work. To fix the unemployment problem, the illegals were rounded up and deported.

[publius911]

a majority of Republicans does not think the undocumented should be allowed to live and work here even if they pay a fine and meet other requirements.

There is a fundamental problem with the entire premise of the article, and the polls.

We all know that how the questions are phrased determines how the answers will be chosen. If the "ideal" solution answer is never an option, it will never prevail.

Another aspect of the premise is that the "respondents are always divided (pigeonholed) between Dems and GOP, rather than "liberal/socialists" and fiscal/social conservatives of no specific party!

That changes the entire spectrum of useful answers.