Poll: Immigration Amnesty Is Unpopular Outside the Beltway, Pols Remain Clueless

Reader Comments

Back to blog

hi my nam

gemma of AK 11:20PM April 21, 2010

DEPORT ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS including the one from Kenya that lives in the White House.

David of MI 12:47PM April 15, 2010

Doesn't mean anything. "I can guarantee that if President Obama legalizes 12 million illegal immigrants, more will immigrate." No, if DHS does their job right and secures our borders as much as they can...it will be more difficult to immigrate here, therefore reducing the number of immigrants drastically. Your borders may never be fully secure but the United States made the mistake of not securing them years ago which led to the ridiculous amount of immigrants here illegally today. Mexico is also at fault but the fact of the matter is that this has happened and needs to be fixed. People hiding in the shadows need to come out and pay for their mistakes.

Eddie of NV 12:02AM November 21, 2009

production driven computer offset didn orbital sun rss

raynerwhit of KS 12:29PM July 05, 2009

There is no point in having laws unless you intend to use them.

There is no point in having borders unless you intend to enforce them.

There is no reason to have immigration reform unless there is true reform.

There is no reason to reelect politicians that ignore the will of their constituents.

By same token there is no value in having an election if the voters fail to study the candidates and issues. Example: Less than 60% of voters know who Joe Biden is.

We are doomed to this hell until the majority takes responsibilty for their voting. A good start would be to ignore right and left wing media, group think, special interests, unions, management and most especially rhetoric from polarizing partisan politicians. By definition these factions do not care about what is best for Americans.

Think for yourself America!

JJ Deboner of CA 2:03PM May 03, 2009

"Comprehensive immigration reform" with an "earned legalization" is a euphemism for mass amnesty often used by open-border advocates such as Luis Guiterrez.

We tried "comprehensive immigration reform" in 1986, which failed and actually led to more illegal immigration. After the amnesty was granted, the promised enforcement disappeared.

The answer of what to do with the 12-20 + million illegal aliens in our country is quite simple. It is neither "comprehensive" mass amnesty nor mass deportation.

Rather if we enforce our existing immigration laws, mandate E-Verify, and cut off non-emergency benefits for illegal immigrants, the majority of them will return to their home countries over time.

This attrition strategy is the humane, cost-effective, and true middle ground way to solve this problem and end illegal immigration. And this would have the great benefit of freeing up millions of jobs for unemployed working class Americans.

Taxpayer & voter of OH 9:41PM April 24, 2009

There is a certain amount of discussion, and then opinions crystallize and nothing else gets by the "frame". I think immigration has reached this point and there is nothing but name-calling left. The dialogue does not consist of mutual problem-solving. Some people routinely dismiss the subject by saying "We are all immigrants". Or they accuse their opponent of using propaganda techniques. Or they ask rhetorical questions: How will you deport 20 million people? Occasionally, one reads some real problem-solving. Someone suggested that if government(s) crack down on substandard working conditions and wages, the legal workers will take the jobs and the "problem" will go away. Others focus on the granting of birthright citizenship or the long delays in legal immigration process. We could put our heads together and stop the name-calling.

psydneyh of OR 3:57PM April 23, 2009

Most anti immigrant people don't have real solutions to this problem. They are happy with ICE spending an ungodly amount of money persecuting the low hanging fruit rather than the criminals they are supposed to. They rather have easy pickings by letting local law enforcement racially profiling hispanics. How do you know which people to ask for documentation without racially profiling? You can't. There are hundreds of cases where ICE has deported US citizens for just being hispanic and don't even bother to check their status befoer deporting them.. There have even been citizens dying in their hands. Heck, there's even law suits against ICE which i'm sure it will cost all of us a lot of money. So if you think this attrition through enforcement is a good way to deal with the problem than explain it to the families that have lost their loved ones due to their negligence. If you are happy with this than don't be surprised when your civil liberties are violated.

If undocumented immigrants are criminals than why aren't they allowed representation in immigration court. ICE says that it's a civil matter so therefore they don't see a need for representation. So why is it that local police are involved in this civil issue? law enforcement is for criminals, not undocumented immigrants. They are not even allowed any communication with their families.

TGood doesn't show his source for his $220 million dollar cost of 'illegal' health care cost but i'm sure it's a farce. Like I said before, I've seen ridiculous figures from anti immigrants groups that really don't reflect the truth. Polls and statistics cannot be trusted. And yes i live in an area with heavy hispanic population legal and not. I've lived in this so called slums and I must say that the only ones letting these apartments complexes deteriorate are the landlords that hardly maintain them. I live in a city which a few decades ago enjoyed prosperity in business and otherwise mainly because of the DFW airport, but as sorrounding suburbs are growing business has gone north. So the local goverment feels a need to blame the 'illegals' for this instead of seeing that over time things change. Instead of finding solutions they are fueling the fire.

Deporting all this millions of people is not a realistic solution, Like SirCahrles said, give us viable and realistic solution to this problem without an earned lagalization component. Oh right, you can't.

Nicolas Venzor of TX 1:41AM April 22, 2009

I reiterate my earlier question, now more directly: if not comprehensive immigration reform with an earned legalization component, then what do you propose? (I would especially like to hear from ConcernedTexan, TGood, and some others on this discussion.)

I challenge you, I implore you, to answer this question without deferring to capital letters or racist statements. Spell out specifically what you propose to do for the 12 million people here in the United States without papers.

SirCharles of MD 2:58PM April 21, 2009

I must clarify my last paragraph of "Why do you call them good?" below (so much for writing "on the fly"!)

I meant to say that I simply can not see the morality or wisdom of taking from hurting Americans what is THEIRS to give to those who have no right to be here and who should be demanding more from THEIR OWN country.

We have a limited, finite amt. of funding and resources to give. While I am not (of course!) opposed to charity (we try to be active in giving), I feel it is utterly wrong to give to those of another country out of those limited supplies until each and every need of our own has been met.

The ones who enter illegally--from ANY country--should receive the things they "should have" from their country of origin.

Thank you for allowing me to clarify.

ConcernedTexan of TX 7:02AM April 21, 2009

Add Your Thoughts
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

Back to blog

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

advertisement

Robert Schlesinger

An End to the NRA’s Angry Swagger

Polls show that overwhelming majorities of Americans, and even of NRA members, favor universal background checks.

advertisement