There seems to be a lot of confusion on where the average American stands with respect to the Senate amnesty plan now being developed. I've seen polls where questions such as "Should aliens in the US be given a path to citizenship or tortured and shot?" yielding 85% favoring amnesty. In other polls, the figures are neatly flipped the other way.
The Rasmussen poll discussed below seems to give a rational snapshot of the situation.
The actual write-up on the poll is here:
Only 26 percent favor plan
The the meat of the poll seems to be in this paragraph:
A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey conducted Monday and Tuesday night shows that just 26% of American voters favor passage of the legislation. Forty-eight percent (48%) are opposed while 26% are not sure. The bi-partisan agreement among influential Senators and the White House has been met with bi-partisan opposition among the public. The measure is opposed by 47% of Republicans, 51% of Democrats, and 46% of those not affiliated with either major party.
The poll indicates that the very vast majority of the public favors strong border enforcement:
The enforcement side of the debate is clearly where the public passion lies on the issue. Seventy-two percent (72%) of voters say it is Very Important for "the government to improve its enforcement of the borders and reduce illegal immigration." That view is held by 89% of Republicans, 65% of Democrats, and 63% of unaffiliated voters.
The argument that we must move forward immediately, without further study or debate, in order to deal with the 12 million already here seems to fall on deaf ears:
Advocates of "comprehensive" reform have taken to arguing that those who want an enforcement-only policy must explain how they would deal with the 12 million illegal aliens already living in the country. The public reaction to that question appears to be "Why?" Only 29% of voters say it is Very Important for "the government to legalize the status of illegal aliens already in the United States."
These numbers tell me there is a great divide between the average American in the street and the international corporations who benefit from the cheap, third world labor that the bill promises. But it makes sense that the views of the two groups would conflict. This divide seems to exist even if one assumes a relatively large pro American worker bias on the part of Rasmussen.
The best argument I have heard on the subject is that the laws enacted with Reagan's 1986 amnesty plan are sufficient to deal with the situation, but they are not being enforced. If this is true, and from what I have seen it appears to be true, I have to ask myself what another layer of unenforced laws and regulations will buy us. For my part, I would be much more inclined to listen to this proposal if there was a hard track record of enforcing that last bunch of regulations that were put in place in exchange for the 1986 amnesty of 3.5 million illegals.
The actions I am now seeing taken against the American trucking industry further sours me on this plan. From what I understand about the trucking plan, an almost unlimited number of Mexican truckers will soon be allowed to ship in the US. They will be working for about 20% the wage of an American driver and they will be subject only to Mexican truck safety standards - standards that are much lower, and much cheaper to meet, than American standards. They will be allowed to pick up loads within the US.
It seems that under this new plan, a huge pool of middle class American jobs will be wiped out and insourced to cheap third world labor. I must ask myself how this benefits our country. The answer seems to be that Wall Mart stock will rise and tomatos will cost a couple of cents less.