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Poll: 69% of Americans think the border kids should stay if it’s not safe for them to return home
Hotair ^ | 07/29/2014 | AllahPundit

Posted on 07/29/2014 9:49:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

In case you’ve been wondering why Democrats have been pounding the idea so hard that this is a “refugee” crisis at the border, not an “illegal immigration” crisis, here’s what happens when people are asked which statement comes closest to their view:

stay

In fact, under current U.S. law, the kids don’t qualify as “refugees.” That’s one of the sticking points in the White House’s proposal to send envoys to Honduras and start processing asylum applications there: How can we grant “refugee” status to someone who’s fleeing street gangs, not racial/religious/political persecution? If this result is accurate, the public doesn’t much care. Danger, at least with respect to kids, may be sufficient to move someone from the “illegal” column to the “refugee” category. What the limiting principle on that is for future waves of illegal border crossings, I have no idea.

How much should we trust this data, though? Here’s another result from the same poll that suggests people are … “conflicted,” I guess, is a nice way to put it.

refugee

Sixty-nine percent think the kids should stay if it’s not safe for them to go home and 71 percent completely or mostly agree that we should shelter anyone who’s facing danger in their native country, but 59 percent think we shouldn’t let the kids stay lest it encourage further illegal immigration. Okay then. Also, my pal Karl notes on Twitter that other polls seem to contradict the “let them stay” result here. From Pew:

pew

The difference there could be a product of how the question is phrased: There’s no mention of “refugees” or, more importantly, the physical danger kids might face if sent home, but the reference to asylum at least suggests it. Or maybe it doesn’t contradict the result above as much as we might think. People are willing to see some refugees deported in the name of expediting the kids’ cases, but maybe they’d still support asylum for most, especially if you stressed that it’s not safe in Central America.

Karl also points to this CNN result:

cnn

CNN got that result even though, when asked whether most of the kids are refugees or illegal immigrants, 51 percent said the former comes closer to their view versus 45 percent who said the latter. That same poll also found a general trend towards security: Whereas in the past most Americans thought legalizing illegals should be the main focus should be on legalizing illegals who are already here, 51 percent now say security should be the focus.

Any theories on how all of this squares? I’m always open to “one poll’s an outlier” but my hunch is that it’s case of public opinion responding to the right terminology. The more sympathetic you make the situation — the kids are “refugees,” they’re uniformly young waifs, they’re leaving because of violence — the better the numbers will be. The truth, that many kids are teenagers or are traveling with moms who say they’re fleeing poverty, not violence, doesn’t play as well.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; bordercrisis; borderkids; illegal; immigration
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1 posted on 07/29/2014 9:49:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Forget the kids, already ... ms13 has invaded and is recruiting


2 posted on 07/29/2014 9:51:39 AM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true .. I have no proof .. but they're true.)
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To: SeekAndFind

People also vote for their own executioners.


3 posted on 07/29/2014 9:51:58 AM PDT by headstamp 2
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To: SeekAndFind

I thought that the USA was a very dangerous place due to our lax gun laws? That you were more likely to be shot here than any other “advanced” country?

Now it’s a safe haven from violence. How interesting.


4 posted on 07/29/2014 9:52:25 AM PDT by DBrow
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To: All

69% of democrats think....

there...fixed it...


5 posted on 07/29/2014 9:54:18 AM PDT by Boonie
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To: SeekAndFind

It is not safe for America or Americans to allow them to stay. It will give MS13 effective control of a number of American cities and will multiply the drug trade and attendant violence everywhere in the country. The Cartels are right behind them and are using MS13 as a wedge.


6 posted on 07/29/2014 9:55:03 AM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINEhttp://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/)
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To: SeekAndFind; All

IOW, “69% of Americans” approve of breaking Federal Law.


7 posted on 07/29/2014 9:56:27 AM PDT by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: SeekAndFind
To personally guarantee residence, medical care etc. for these children.

How many volunteers?

Could it be claimed, that the number of kind souls would be considerably less than 69%?

8 posted on 07/29/2014 9:56:56 AM PDT by Peter Libra
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To: SeekAndFind

The American public can be unthinking suckers at times. They get a question like “do you want to send toddlers back to be executed by Central American drug gangs?” and the answer is “no.” But no one thinks about the premise behind the question or whether it has any basis in reality. They don’t think it through. Then they bitch and whine when epidemics break out as a result of diseases these people bring in, or the school systems are overloaded with kids who don’t share Middle Class US values, or because the Welfare rolls swell up and government spending goes through the roof.


9 posted on 07/29/2014 9:57:52 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s the teddy bear and soccer ball narrative that sticks.
Where is your compassion?


10 posted on 07/29/2014 9:58:16 AM PDT by Zuse (I am disrupted! I am offended! I am insulted! I am outraged!)
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To: SeekAndFind
69% are touchy feely and haven't a clue as to the consequences or strain on local govts-schools, welfare, hospitals, etc.

They didn't just flunk logic 101, they never heard of logic.

Give these children medical care and food, and when they are able to travel,sent them home. They are only 12 to 14% of the influx, anyway. So if there are 90000 children, how many MS-13 gang age teens and adults are there?

vaudine

11 posted on 07/29/2014 10:02:02 AM PDT by vaudine
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To: SeekAndFind

If it’s a CNN poll then it is contrived and has no validity.


12 posted on 07/29/2014 10:02:07 AM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: Peter Libra
Whoops!.Should read.

To personally guarantee residence, medical care etc. for JUST ONE of these children.

13 posted on 07/29/2014 10:02:14 AM PDT by Peter Libra
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To: Zuse

Compassion?

Shove them all back across the border, at gunpoint if necessary.

If they die, too bad; their parents/government made a poor choice.

I don’t give a shit about them, their kids, their culture or their country. We owe them NOTHING.


14 posted on 07/29/2014 10:04:27 AM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: SeekAndFind

.....and I’m sure they’re willing to put them up in their homes, right next to their daughters’ rooms.


15 posted on 07/29/2014 10:05:14 AM PDT by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: Peter Libra

When has the WH ever told the truth uring this administration except when he promised “change”?


16 posted on 07/29/2014 10:05:14 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: Graewoulf

Well, there you have it. We no longer have an moral argument for paying taxes, obeying federal regulations, refraining from burning our neighbors’ house down because we can. We are a country of the powerful, not a country of laws.


17 posted on 07/29/2014 10:07:13 AM PDT by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: Zuse



18 posted on 07/29/2014 10:07:58 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ( "Never, never, never give up". Winston Churchill ...)
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To: SeekAndFind

democrat propaganda shoots America through the heart once more. What better way to kill America than with a shot to the heart of America?


19 posted on 07/29/2014 10:07:59 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Scrutinize our government and Secure the Blessing of Freedom and Justice)
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, if these kids aren’t safe in their home countries, turn them loose in Chicago on a weekend. Bet they’ll be begging to go back home.


20 posted on 07/29/2014 10:08:26 AM PDT by fatnotlazy
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