Posted on 01/06/2006 11:02:37 AM PST by jackbenimble
WASHINGTON - Because Hispanic voters are turned off by the conservative-led push for tougher penalties on illegal immigration, they are more likely to support Democrats than Republicans in November, according to the 2005 National Latino Survey released Thursday.
Regardless of a political candidate's views on issues such as gay rights, the economy, taxes or health care, a candidate's views on immigration will rank as the most important among Hispanic voters, said Robert Deposada, president of The Latino Coalition, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that commissioned the survey.
Deposada said The Latino Coalition is nonpartisan and endorses both Republicans and Democrats.
Congress is weighing a variety of bills that would change current U.S. immigration policies.
Some lawmakers want to toughen border restrictions to thwart the estimated thousands of people who cross into the United States without legal authorization. Others favor President Bush's proposal for a guest-worker program that would provide undocumented immigrants legal status to work in the U.S. for a limited number of years.
There are an estimated 11 million undocumented people in the U.S. while an estimated 1 million others are caught each year trying to cross the border.
The Republican-controlled House recently approved a plan to increase punishment for immigrants working in the U.S. illegally and businesses that hire them. This plan includes erecting a wall across one-third of the U.S.-Mexico border and turning illegal immigrants into felons. The Senate is expected to take up the issue early this year.
The survey was based on phone interviews of 1,000 Hispanic adults Dec. 17-20.
The stance allowing people to flow in unchecked? They should oppose both parties, then. Cause no one is doing anything about it.
“Hispanic registered voters are strongly supporting initiatives to reform immigration while penalizing illegal behavior. A majority of Hispanic voters (52.4%) support initiatives that would not allow people who entered this county illegally to become citizens unless they reapply from their country of origin,” Deposada said. “By a margin of 50% to 41%, Hispanic voters support increasing the number of border patrol agents in our southern border, and also support new laws to make sure that employers can only hire workers who are in the U.S. legally (50% - 41%). An overwhelming majority of 82% support the creation of a new Temporary Worker Program. Also a plurality (41.2% – 39.9%) support imposing a fine of at least $2,000 for illegal immigrants in order to gain legal employment as a temporary worker in the U.S.”
Results of 2005 National Latino Survey
If you just read the article you would think that they all wanted open borders whereas the actual pool results suggest that most would support a program a lot like the Kyl/Cornyn Plan.
It turns out that except at the Presidential level for George Bush, Republicans are getting only trivial support from Latinos anyway so they don't have much to lose by being tough on illegal immigration and a lot to lose if they let very many of the illegals ever become voters.
I would think anyone who went to the trouble of following the law, immigrants from Mexico or anywhere else, would be opposed to benefits for those who did not follow the law.
It doesn't specify here if *any* Hispanic was able to take part in this poll or only the ones who are legally allowed to vote.
If you follow the link in my Post #3 you will find detailed discussion of the results of the poll which make it clear that they talked to both legal and illegal Latinos and that they tabulated the results separately and that they got very different responses from the two groups.
Intuitively that sounds correct. But keep in mind that the Reagan Amnesty turned 3.5 million illegals, who had not followed the law, into legal voting citizens. There have been 7 mini-amnesties (245i) since the Reagan Amnesty that have given citizenship to a few million more illegals who did not follow the legal process but who got citizenship anyway. It would be hypocritical for these many beneficiaries of amnesties, having benefited from them personally, to now oppose them for the current batch of illegals.
That is the big problem with amnesties; they just beget more illegal immigrants who believe there will be future amnesties, and the more amnesties we give, the more voters there are who will support them in the future. They are now a political force that the Republicans believe they have to hispander to.
Good, yet crappy and depressing, point.
82% of registered hispanic voters support the creation of a new guest worker program.
The fact the House Republicans have passed a reform bill without a new guest worker program would imply that 82% of hispanic voters are opposed to the bill.
And at the Congressional level, 85% of them support Democrats. For every 10 Hispanics we turn into citizens, 8 of them are going to vote for RATS.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.