Posted on 05/06/2005 5:08:06 PM PDT by John Jorsett
A new opinion poll by Zogby International indicates Americans are hardly pleased with the Bush administration on the subject of illegal immigration.
The poll, cited on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" program yesterday, noted a huge majority – 81 percent – believes local and state police should help federal authorities enforce laws against illegal immigration. Only 14 percent disagreed.
Voters were also asked, "Do you support or oppose the Bush administration's proposal to give millions of illegal aliens guest worker status and the opportunity to become citizens?" Only 35 percent gave their support, and 56 percent said no.
"A majority opposed illegal immigration," pollster John Zogby told CNN. "In fact, when you combine those two terms, 'illegal and immigration,' it really conjures up a considerable amount of negatives. And, in fact, we find that it's really across the board."
According to the report, the greatest opponents of illegal immigration are Democrats, African-Americans, women and people with household income below $75,000, those with the most to lose in the job market.
When it came to the status of the nation's borders, respondents were asked, "Do you agree or disagree that the federal government should deploy troops on the Mexican border as a temporary measure to control illegal immigration?" A clear majority – 53 percent – agree, while 40 percent disagree.
"The Minuteman program highlighted the fact that we need more tighter border security," Phil Kent of American Immigration Control Foundation told the network. "So I think these numbers again are good. It's a good civics lesson for the American people. It shows our elected leaders that we want action."
In summing up her report, CNN correspondent Lisa Sylvester noted, "So, while the public wants tougher borders, politicians are pushing to leave them open. A real disconnect."
Dobbs responded to that statement, saying: "The disconnect that you referred to, Lisa, between our elected officials and the people of this country is in no – on no other issue any more dramatic than on the issue of illegal immigration. The Zogby poll is just simply the most recent in a string of polls that show that the American people want their borders secure, they want immigration laws to be enforced, and to clean up what has become an atrocious mess on the part of our elected representatives serving better the interests of U.S. multinationals than the people who are working for a living in this country."
Within a week of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S., Zogby polled Americans on border security and immigration issues.
When asked whether the government was doing enough to control the border and screen those allowed into the country, 76 percent said the government was not doing enough.
Regarding future threats to the U.S., 72 percent of likely voters in 2001 said a dramatic increase in resources devoted to border control and enforcement of immigration laws would help reduce the chances of a terrorist attack in the future.
Odds are that there will be some terror event in the future that involves South Americans and/or Mexican gangsters. Which will get everybody's attention.
Everyone would benefit from a fair enforcement of the law.
I'm not surprised that such a supermajority wants something done about it.
if major ity would quit hiring em they'd probably be less likely to keep acoming
The first time I saw Natalie (not her real name but everyone said she looked like a young Natalie Woods) was at a crawfish boil at Bimbos. Natalie was thumbing meat out of the tails for etouffee with her right hand while sucking heads out of her left hand.
She looked up at me with the sweetest, most innocent smile ever seen at Bimbos and said “Hi!” It seems she had just moved out of her parents’ home on the Trinity River and come to Houston to live with her older sister and brother-in-law.
All Natalie had ever known was the river community. The river folk live on land owned by the Trinity River Authority and make a living supplying yellow cats to the restaurants and fish markets in East Texas. Some people say they build their houses out of wood they find floating down the river, but Natalie said her father traded fish to Oggletree’s saw mill for surplus building materials.
Natalie was in hog heaven living in Houston. For a girl reared on black beans, rice and backstrap, even a Big Mac was a special experience.
It didn’t take long for Natalie to hook up with Lance (not his real name), a journeyman electrician who had recently moved to Houston from Michigan. Like most Michigan-Americans he was superb at explaining to us how we did everything wrong in Texas. Especially irksome to him were our laws that permitted nonunion electricians to work on public buildings such as hotels and shopping malls.
Lance was a man of principles, foremost of which was that he would not unlock his tool box for less than prevailing union wage. After the federally related project for which he had moved down here ended, Lance didn’t unlock his toolbox very often. Natalie’s jobs at Children’s World and Wal-Mart made the payments on his mobile home and pickup truck, but not much more.
Under pressure from Natalie’s sister and some regulars at Bimbos, Lance finally agreed to consider jobs for a little less than union wage. But after awhile, instead of taking jobs he simply started complaining that there weren’t any decent jobs because the Mexicans took them all. He quickly learned all the code phrases such as crowded emergency rooms, lowering educational levels, disease, crime, welfare, cultural dilution, invasion, and most righteously, “illegal.”
He could have accepted a steady job with an electrical service company at which a friend of works, but he told owner that he wasn’t going to work for $18 an hour “changing light bulbs at used car lots.” He told Natalie he didn’t get the job because he didn’t speak Spanish.
Instead he talked Natalie into getting a higher paying job at one of the topless clubs outside the city limits that will hire 17 year olds to dance. Lance always appeared remorseful about Natalie having to do what she did, but he was adamant that it wasn’t his fault, it was the fault of the government for letting in all those Mexicans who took all the jobs.
Natalie doesn’t smile anymore. Her sister says Natalie still defends Lance to friends even though she knows that Mexicans aren’t the real reason Lance won’t get a job.
There are many Natalies in America today. Some are young children whose dead-beat fathers are a year behind in child support “because the Mexicans got all the jobs.” Some are parents whose grown sons have moved back home because “ the Mexicans got all the good jobs.”
Some are young men and women who are discouraged from attending technical schools or applying for entry level jobs because they have heard that only Mexicans are being hired.
But ironically, probably the biggest victims are those who are wasting their lives away complaining about Mexicans instead of getting jobs and building normal lives.
Agreed. They're hyper-sensitive to the "racist" label, even though it's so over-used that it means nothing today.
The pubs are in a fish-or-cut-bait situation--their constituents, the blue-collar workers, are getting hammered in the workplace and are looking for relief. On the other side, the pubs don't want to get labeled "racist" by the dems when they so much as clear their throats to talk about immigration. Throw in the pubs' efforts to win over the latino vote and you've got a situation that requires strong leadership, vision and a stiff backbone--something the pubs are seriously lacking. It's just easier to point and yell, "Look, it's Superman!" and run the other way.
You know this is about the billions your illegals and those who hire them are stealing in freebies. No subsidies for you.
(State and Local—LEA--Authority to Enforce Immigration Law.)
"The law on this question is quite clear: arresting aliens who have violated either criminal provisions of the INA or civil provisions that render an alien deportable "IS WITHIN THE INHERENT AUTHORITY OF STATES." And such inherent arrest authority has never been preempted by Congress.
The source of this authority flows from the states’ status as sovereign entities. THEY ARE SOVEREIGN GOVERNMENTS possessing all residual powers not abridged or superceded by the U.S. Constitution. (Emphasis. Added)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1395690/posts
" More like tom tancredo, backstabber to Tom Delay 2005."
Don't you mean " More like George Bush, backstabber to America 2000-2005."
I thought Tancredo was good as well, until the Delay thing. After that, screw him
On the western portion of the project. It was the fastest way for that portion of the railroad to get its labor.
And AFAIK, the immigrant labor was all legal at the time. Of course, the facts of the matter often matter little to you, as long as you can make a snide remark in an attempt to make the other side appear wrong.
I love my President - but I sure wish he'd listen to what the public is trying to tell him about illegal immigration.
BTTT !!
Would you include in this group the 47% of Latino voters who voted in favor of Arizona's Prop 200?
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