Texans in poll favor tighter immigration
Posted on 03/25/2002 5:24:39 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Texans in poll favor tighter immigration
03/25/2002
A majority of Texans believe immigration into the United States should be tightened, a new Texas Poll shows.
Sixty-four percent of respondents said the United States allows too many legal immigrants into the country, the poll released Monday shows.
Texas Poll director Ty Meighan said previous surveys have shown strong anti-immigrant sentiment in Texas. After Sept. 11, it's stronger.
One immigration advocate said that he understands people's fears after the terror attacks but that people shouldn't be quick to judge all immigrants in this country.
"Very broad strokes have been brushed on this issue, saying all immigrants then are potential terrorists," said Nathan Selzer, a representative for Proyecto Libertad, a Harlingen-based nonprofit organization providing legal services to undocumented immigrants. The idea that "you'll have al-Qaeda members sneaking in with Mexican immigrants down by Brownsville is a ridiculous one," he said.
According to the most recent Immigration and Naturalization Service statistics, 849,807 legal immigrants were admitted into the United States in 2000, including 63,840 immigrants intending to reside in Texas.
In the Texas Poll, the Scripps Howard Data Center questioned 1,000 Texans by telephone from Feb. 11 to March 4. The margin of error was 3 percentage points, meaning each response could vary that much in either direction.
The poll also found that 80 percent of Texans surveyed agreed that the United States should toughen restrictions on visas for foreign students. Eighty-two percent said there should be tougher restrictions on visas for other visitors to this country.
Respondents were more divided on whether applications of people applying for immigration from Arab countries should be scrutinized more closely than applications from other countries. Fifty-four percent said they should; 43 percent said they shouldn't.
There are a number of reasons for the attitude against immigrants, said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington D.C.-based group.
"9-11 and a weakening economy, tightening state budgets and broad sense of favoritism in amnesty-oriented programs is creating a backlash and demand for change," Mr. Stein said.
Mr. Stein said that President Bush needs to take "a serious look" at the Texas survey.
"There is a different migration culture in South Texas because of the historical uniqueness of the area, that it's very different politically than in much of the rest of the country," Mr. Stein said. "If you're getting these kind of results in Texas, then you are likely to see stronger results in other parts of the country."
Mr. Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox renewed talks on immigration during a U.N. conference last week in Monterrey, Mexico, after discussions on the matter were set aside following Sept. 11. Discussions in Monterrey resulted in no agreement between the two leaders on a guest worker program or a way to legalize, or regularize, the status of millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
J.C. Hernandez, founder and member of Houston-based Texans for Immigration Reform, said the United States had enough problems to focus on. Thus, it's to the country's benefit to "delay any more entries."
"We believe in a moratorium on legal immigration and complete stoppage of illegal immigration," Mr. Hernandez said.
Anne Amis, supervisor of the Houston-based Texas Center for Immigrant Legal Assistance, said people who were legally in the United States were here for the right reasons. The center is a program within Associated Catholic Charities. The majority of its clients are from Mexico and Central America.
"People that have a way to legalize their status are usually family members, people who are joining family members that are here, or they're people that are employed, that their employers are petitioning for them," Ms. Amis said.
Ms. Amis said her organization had heard of immigrants, particularly from Middle Eastern countries, being questioned by authorities on their immigration status, which didn't occur before Sept. 11. They have brought their concerns to Houston city officials, she said.
"People who are undocumented had very little voice, little rights beforehand. But even now, especially if you're from one of these suspected [terrorist] countries, you're very vulnerable," Ms. Amis said.
She said she was dismayed by the survey's results but not surprised.
"For all immigrants, the tide has changed," she said. "The mood toward immigrants has changed."
E-mail: brodriguez@dallasnews.com
The millions of illegals here now are criminals! Do nothing to try to "legalize" them because that solves nothing and only encourages millions of others to head north to obtain amnesty under some adminsitrative ruling ("I was in US from 1983 to 1994 and it is only fair to give me legal status"). I understand that illegals are a source of cheap labor, fine. But, let us control what is done, not them. Amnesty? Legal status? Fine, but to the NEXT million to follow our procedures as they come across the borders. Don't reward criminals for their crime. Illegals are criminals! DEFEND THE BORDER!!
Where do you suppose the increase came from?
Immigration, some of it legal!
Yeah, the results might be considerably different if they limited the poll to U.S. citizens!
I see a lot of it in the cities in Texas, the towns are slowly becoming segregated once again.
We aren't going to have large sections of the country filled with one race, it'll be satellite groups, every city will be split into several sections.
I see race relations going to hell in a handbasket within 20 years.
I hope I'm wrong.
China I am sure is watching with great interest. If America is battling to hold the union together, there's not much we will be able to do as China marches across Asia.
Correct. That is the plan.
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