Though establishment Republican leaders and the mainstream press–without any evidence–incessantly claim Republicans must cave on immigration enforcement to appeal to Hispanics, a majority of Hispanics actually want Congress to pass legislation making it tougher for businesses to illegally hire illegal immigrants.
Revealing that Americans realize illegal immigration makes it tougher for them to find good-paying jobs, a Paragon Insights poll found that Americans across all ethnicities, income and age groups, and political affiliations supported stronger rules that make it tougher for businesses to employ illegal immigrants. Americans in general, by a 50-point margin, wanted tougher rules against hiring illegal immigrants, and that included a majority of Hispanics (56% to 37%).
Respondents were asked, “Would you support or oppose Congress passing new legislation that strengthen the rules making it illegal for businesses in the U.S. to hire illegal immigrants?” The question unified all groups such as Democrats (58%), Obama voters (58%), Republicans (90%), Romney voters (90%), Hispanics (56%), African-Americans (55%), Protestants (78%), Catholics (75%), Evangelicals (76%), non-Christians (63%), and those in urban (66%), suburban (72%), and rural (73%) areas.
Americans employed in the private sector (76%) and the government (63%) also wanted tighter rules against hiring illegal immigrants in addition to white-collar (72%), blue-collar (72%) and female voters (67% to 22). It is worth noting that white-collar employees, especially those in the high-tech sector, would be impacted by potential increases in guest-worker visas, which tech industry executives have coveted for decades even though there is a surplus of American high-tech workers. And illegal immigrants who receive temporary work permits would be eligible for government employment.
The poll also found that a majority of Americans oppose President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty and want Congress to defund it.
The survey found that 58% of Americans oppose Obama’s executive amnesty while 53% of Americans want it defunded. Only 36% of Americans support Obama’s executive amnesty and 36% oppose defunding efforts.
The poll asked respondents, “President Obama has taken executive action allowing as many as four million undocumented immigrants to avoid deportation and seek jobs in the United States.” Regarding the defunding efforts, the poll asked, “The Republicans in Congress say that the President’s action is unlawful and violates federal law which blocks illegal immigrants from holding jobs in the United States. They have said they may take away federal funding so this order cannot be carried out. Do you support or oppose Republicans in Congress taking away federal funding for this executive order?”
The poll also found blue-collar voters in particular strongly oppose Obama’s executive amnesty–62% of blue-collar voters oppose it while only 32% support. In addition, blue-collar voters “strongly” oppose Obama’s executive amnesty by a 3-to-1 margin (47% to 15%) over those who strongly support the measure, which is consistent with the near 3-to-1 opposition (43% to 16%) among those making $50,000 to $100,000.
In addition, nearly a third of Obama voters oppose his executive amnesty while independent women, by a nearly 5-to-1 margin, strongly oppose rather than strongly support Obama’s executive amnesty.
When Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has been the top champion of American workers in Congress, was named Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, he said that the “financial and political elite have been controlling this debate for years,” and “this subcommittee will give voice to those whose voice has been shut out”:
the voice of the dedicated immigration officers who have been blocked from doing their jobs; the voice of the working families whose wages have been reduced by years of record immigration; the voice of the American IT workers who are being replaced with guest workers; the voice of the parents who are worried about their schools and hospitals; and the voice of all Americans who believe we must have a lawful system of immigration they can be proud of and that puts their interests first
The Paragon Insights poll, which was conducted January 22-25 and has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, reveals that Americans across the board would like more lawmakers in Congress to hear their voices on illegal immigration and Obama’s executive amnesty.
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