Poll: Immigrants Say Reform Debate Muddied by Racism and Congress' Bad Job
Feature Story by Tyler Lewis - 4/4/2006
Legal immigrants in the U.S. have heard the debate raging around immigration reform in Congress - and they don't like it.Sixty-seven percent of U.S. legal immigrants believe that an anti-immigrant sentiment is growing in the United States, according to a new multilingual poll released last week. A majority of the respondents believe this sentiment stems from racism toward Latinos and Asian Americans.
"This poll is significant because it takes the temperature of those closest to the current immigration debate," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), a co-sponsor of the poll, in a statement. "The survey results are striking and reinforce the call for responsible immigration reform worthy of a nation built by immigrants."
The poll was conducted by Bendixen & Associates, for New America Media, a nationwide association of more than 700 ethnic media outlets, the Center for American Progress, and LCCR's sister organization, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund.
Researchers interviewed 800 legal immigrants in 47 states; 55 percent Latino, 30 percent Asian American, and 15 percent European/African in nine different languages, including English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Hindi, and Haitian Creole.
The immigration debate began heating up in December when the House passed HR 4437, the draconian enforcement bill by James Sensenbrenner, R. Wis., which would make any illegal immigrant a felon and includes funding for a wall along the Mexico border. With 8 percent support, the House bill garnered the least amount of support from respondents, who preferred the McCain-Kennedy Senate bill and Bush's guest-worker program.
Recent rallies in key cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C. were held in opposition to the House bill and the current controversy surrounding the attempts of Sen. Bill Frist, R. Tenn., to circumvent the Senate Judiciary Committee with his own enforcement bill.
The poll found that 81 percent of the legal immigrants polled believe that illegal immigrants accept the low-skilled jobs that Americans don't want and 73 percent believe illegal immigrants aid the economy by supplying low-cost labor.
Over two-thirds of respondents (68 percent) support a temporary work permit for illegal immigrants and a way to gain residency. However, they expressed little faith that Congress will craft an adequate immigration reform bill.
Only 32 percent of respondents said Congress is doing a good job. Republicans, who are fiercely divided over immigration reform, garnered only 22 percent approval.
The Senate is currently considering a bill by Sen. Arlen Specter, R. Pa., which observers find encouraging. It contains border protections, a vehicle for illegal immigrants to qualify for residency and eventually citizenship, and Bush's guest-worker program.
In addition, over 50 lawmakers have introduced English-only bills, including Rep. Steve King, R. Iowa., who told the Washington Times that multilingual documents, such as ballots, "encourage a linguistic divide and discourage law-abiding immigrants from learning English."
