This blows me away....

C

Cypress

Well-known member
I've had the impression for the last few years (mostly from watching cable news shows), that a majority of americans are fed up with illegal aliens, and absolutly do not favor putting them on a path to citizenship.

Turn on bill o'reilly, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck - any of those cable shows, and you get the impression that there's this vast, raging undercurrent of anger across america against illegal immigrants.

Actually, 78% of americans - a clear consensus - favor giving illegal immigrants a break, and a possible path to citizenship:


"Public favors giving illegal immigrants a break"

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — While Congress and the White House remain divided over what to do with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the USA, a new poll shows the American public appears to have reached a consensus on the question.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken last weekend found that 78% of respondents feel people now in the country illegally should be given a chance at citizenship.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-18-illegal-immigrants_N.htm?csp=34
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I maintain that such a measure is a real slap in the face to those of us who have gone through all the legal steps to be here legitimately. That includes paying taxes and SS, as well as all the fees for visa renewal, application fees for permanent residence, etc. It seems to me that at this point in time the country needs people who are able to contribute something; that old "give me your tired, your poor, ..." no longer applies in 2007.
 
Yeah I am against that plan someone had about giving tax amnesty for a couple of years back to illegal immigrants. Was wondering how to become an illegal immigrant if that happened.
 
Cypress said:
I've had the impression for the last few years (mostly from watching cable news shows), that a majority of americans are fed up with illegal aliens, and absolutly do not favor putting them on a path to citizenship.

Turn on bill o'reilly, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck - any of those cable shows, and you get the impression that there's this vast, raging undercurrent of anger across america against illegal immigrants.

Actually, 78% of americans - a clear consensus - favor giving illegal immigrants a break, and a possible path to citizenship:
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I'd kind of like to see the exact question asked before accepting this.
 
Thorn said:
I maintain that such a measure is a real slap in the face to those of us who have gone through all the legal steps to be here legitimately. That includes paying taxes and SS, as well as all the fees for visa renewal, application fees for permanent residence, etc. It seems to me that at this point in time the country needs people who are able to contribute something; that old "give me your tired, your poor, ..." no longer applies in 2007.
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That's kind of how I feel. The amnesty thing reminds me of a coworker I had. Her son served in Iraq and she'd been trying for years to get citizenship. I remember one time she came from Newark in tears because of some paperwork mishap the gov't made. Its been a non-stop headache and then to see people basically get over and only have to pay $3 - $5K to get it over with? That's not fair.
 
LadyT said:
That's kind of how I feel. The amnesty thing reminds me of a coworker I had. Her son served in Iraq and she'd been trying for years to get citizenship. I remember one time she came from Newark in tears because of some paperwork mishap the gov't made. Its been a non-stop headache and then to see people basically get over and only have to pay $3 - $5K to get it over with? That's not fair.
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To me the idea of "a chance at citizenship" is very broad. Do we simply allow them to stay? Are they no longer subjected to the residence requirement? etc.... Yes, I think the illegals currently here should have a chance at citizenship. I am sure that my idea of how we go about this is far different from yours.
 
78% of respondents feel people now in the country illegally should be given a chance at citizenship.

That doesn't mean anything Cypress. If someone said they should have to leave and then wait in line isn't that giving them a chance at citizenship. That is too broad.
 
IHateGovernment said:
78% of respondents feel people now in the country illegally should be given a chance at citizenship.

That doesn't mean anything Cypress. If someone said they should have to leave and then wait in line isn't that giving them a chance at citizenship. That is too broad.
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The question isn't as broad as you imply. Note the trend:

http://www.pollingreport.com/immigration.htm

Clearly, more and more people support allowing people currently in the country illegally to remain if they meet "certain" (unspecified) requirements. Meanwhile, the proportion of people supporting blanket deportation has dropped below 20%.

Illegal immigration is the most overblown and idiotic issue to plague the American electorate today. Mountains out of molehills, yet again. Most of them pay taxes, you know. In fact, they tend to overpay because they don't file for refunds.

Oh, and the emotive outrage? Purely false and hypocritical. :gives:
 
IHateGovernment said:
78% of respondents feel people now in the country illegally should be given a chance at citizenship.

That doesn't mean anything Cypress. If someone said they should have to leave and then wait in line isn't that giving them a chance at citizenship. That is too broad.
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It's true we'd have to see the actual poll question, to analyze this any further.

However, Gallup is one of the most experienced, and professional polling outfits in the world. They have decades of experience, and many highly paid expert who design polling questions. And they don't have a history of trying to skew polls towards either the liberal or conservative side. In short, they can't be dismissed as either partisan hacks, or as people who don't know how to write well-worded poll questions.
 
I have rarely heard the "deport them all" argument from any person serious.

Most of what people want is the border closed BEFORE they get a path to citizenship. Otherwise it is all backwards.
 
I agree. Deport them all is a non answer because it couldn't be done. But only a fool would do any of the other things until we can be sure the torrent of illegals entering the country stops.
 
Cypress said:
It's true we'd have to see the actual poll question, to analyze this any further.

However, Gallup is one of the most experienced, and professional polling outfits in the world. They have decades of experience, and many highly paid expert who design polling questions. And they don't have a history of trying to skew polls towards either the liberal or conservative side. In short, they can't be dismissed as either partisan hacks, or as people who don't know how to write well-worded poll questions.
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For example, here's a recent well worded poll question from Quinnipiac University Poll, where the results are consistent with what Gallup is reporting today:


""Currently illegal immigrants cannot apply for citizenship. If the law were changed to allow illegal immigrants to register into a guest worker program, should that program offer them the ability to work toward citizenship over a period of several years?"

Yes: 69%
No: 27%


69% support Guest worker programs, with an opportunity to become citizens over a few years????

This is not the impression I'm getting from the aforementioned wingnut cable shows.
 
On the other hand, I believe we should aggressively punish employers for knowingly hiring illegal workers. Especially if we allow them to work towards citizenship. Have we not had some "amnesty" type of programs in the past ?
 
uscitizen said:
On the other hand, I believe we should aggressively punish employers for knowingly hiring illegal workers. Especially if we allow them to work towards citizenship. Have we not had some "amnesty" type of programs in the past ?
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I agree big business (and the government allies) have exploited - indeed promoted - illegal immigration to reduce prevailing wages.
 
Haven't we had some amnesty programs in the past for illegals that would sign up ?
If so why would this program be any different from the past ?

Just an endless cycle.
 
this is how the question was posed the last time gallup asked it, i can't find this past weekends.:

http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=26875&pg=1

The March 2-4, 2007, USA Today/Gallup Poll updated a question asked several times last year that measured Americans' preferences for the handling of illegal immigrants already in the country:

Which comes closest to your view about what government policy should be toward illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States? Should the government -- (ROTATED: deport all illegal immigrants back to their home country, allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States in order to work, but only for a limited amount of time, or allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States and become U.S. citizens, but only if they meet certain requirements over a period of time)?

Given these three options, the majority of Americans, 59%, support the government allowing illegal immigrants to remain in this country and eventually become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements. Fifteen percent of Americans support allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the country to work for a limited period of time. About one in four Americans, 24%, say all illegal immigrants should be deported back to their home countries.

Across the four polls on which Gallup has asked this question since the illegal immigration controversy heated up last spring, most Americans have consistently supported the idea of allowing illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens after meeting certain requirements. However, slightly fewer Americans favor this idea than did so last year. At the same time, there has been a small uptick in views that the government should deport all illegal immigrants.
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I support allowing them to stay. I support giving them legal status. Almost all of the people that I know that think the border shouldn't remain wide open does. They just support the first step being to close the border before the path is offered.
 
Yes Damo pretty much what I was trying to say, the first step is to close the border to illegal immigrants, before we can work with the ones that have been here a while.
 
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