Poll: Americans Favor Legal Status for the Undocumented

By Jeralyn, Section Legislation
Posted on Thu May 24, 2007 at 11:33:14 PM EST
Tags: immigrants, immigration reform (all tags)

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The latest New York Times poll shows a strong majority of Americans favor allowing undocumented residents to obtain legal status:

Taking a pragmatic view on a divisive issue, a large majority of Americans want to change the immigration laws to allow illegal immigrants to gain legal status and to create a new guest worker program to meet future labor demands, the poll found.

Two-thirds of those polled said illegal immigrants who had a good employment history and no criminal record should gain legal status as the bill proposes, which is by paying at least $5,000 in fines and fees and receiving a renewable four-year visa.

The respondents weren't specifically asked about the compromise legislation.

More...

Most of those polled agreed that illegal immigrants should eventually be allowed to apply to become American citizens. But 59 percent said illegal immigrants should be considered for citizenship only after legal immigrants who have played by the rules.

If you didn't see Jon Stewart the other night, don't miss it:

A bill that separates families is not a good bill.

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Poll: Americans Favor Legal Status for the Undocumented | 3 comments (3 topical)

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I suggest reading the poll questions (none / 0) (#1)
by LonewackoDotCom on Fri May 25, 2007 at 11:43:33 AM EST

It's always recommended to read the actual poll questions rather than taking the NYT's word for it. Oddly enough, things get a lot more complicated when you do that, and you realize that the NYT is misleading you.

i agree, (none / 0) (#2)
by cpinva on Sat May 26, 2007 at 04:39:31 AM EST

the families shouldn't be separated, send them all back to the home country. it's the right thing to do.

this same plan, more or less, was tried during the carter administration. so far, all it's resulted in is millions more illegal aliens. another amnesty, by whatever name you give it, will eventually result in millions more illegal aliens, etc, etc., etc.

using the logic of this approach, shouldn't we be doing the same for all those currently guests of our nation's finest penal institutions?

Ms. TL: (none / 0) (#3)
by Wile ECoyote on Sat May 26, 2007 at 06:04:54 AM EST

I guess respondents want illegals with criminal records to be sent back. Would you agree with that?