Lying about illegal immigration with statistics

On public opinion re: illegal immigration

Amnestyites constantly state that a majority of Americans favor granting ammnesty to Mexican citizens (plus Guatemalans, Salvadoreans, & others) living here illegally.

One of the things I learned on the way to getting a degree in sociology from UCLA was how you could skew polling to get the results you want.

For example, you can use the false choice trick.

If I ask "Do you favor giving undocumented workers a path to citizenship, or do you favor turning America into a police state, declaring martial law and sending the Army into American cities to round up and deport anyone who has a brown skin and talks with an accent?" ...guess what answer you'll get from most people?

This kind of bias is aided greatly by the mainstream media & leading politicians like Senator Obama reiterating the false choice of accommodation vs. roundup. Obama, who surely knows better, gave a long talk on how economically impossible it would be to round up 12 million "undocumented workers." Never did he mention the alternative of making it so hard for them to make money here that they'd trickle back to Mexico the same way they came--on their own hook.

So after being indoctrinated by the press & pols that you only can choose between accommodation and deportation, a majority of Americans choose accommodation.

Yet another proof that ever more skillful propagandizing is the greatest threat to democracy.

However, none of this means that Americans approve of illegal immigration or are happy with that false choice, even when they can't see through it.

Here in California, one of the bluest of blue states, ballot initiatives denying many social services to illegal aliens & making English our official language passed with huge majorities that included 25% of Latin Americans & 40% of Democrats.

National polls reflect this fact, contrary to what wishful thinkers in this thread might claim.

Some examples:

* 55% consider illegal immigration a “very serious problem.” (Roper ASW for Negative Population Growth, March 2003)
* 65% disagree with granting amnesty to illegal Mexican immigrants in the U.S. (Zogby Intl., May 2002)
* 55% think granting amnesty to illegal immigrants is a bad idea. (Zogby Intl., Sept. 2001)
* 65% believe granting amnesty to illegal immigrants would encourage further illegal immigration, & that for this reason amnesty should not be granted. (Harris Interactive for FAIR, August 2001)
* 67% think the U.S. shouldn't make it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens. (Gallup, August 2001)
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A Rasmussen Report Poll conducted last October 24-25th of 800 likely voters found that:
* 51% opposed the DREAM Act (a form of amnesty for former & present illegal alien students) concept
* 68% believe passing the bill would encourage more illegal immigration in the future.
* 71% believe illegal immigrants shouldn't qualify for in-state tuition rates at colleges & universities.
* 77 % oppose making drivers' licenses available to illegal immigrants.
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* 89% of Americans think illegal immigration is a problem (30% "extremely serious," 33% "very serious," and 26% "somewhat serious." (Time Magazine, Jan. 2006)
* 82% think that not enough is being done along the borders to keep illegal immigrants out. (New York Times/CBS May 2007)
* 68% feel the number of immigrants who cross the border, whether legal or illegal is “too high”. (Polling Company, Sept. 2006)
* 62% oppose making it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens. (Quinnipiac Univ., Feb. 2006)
[thanks to FAIR for this compilation]
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And just two years ago our Republican Congress was all set to enact an amnesty bill that our Amnestyite in Chief Bush II said he was eager to sign--but they were stopped dead in their tracks by the public outcry.

The Republican Party's patrons told their Congress and Presidency to pass this bill, since Chamber of Commerce types are the primary beneficiaries of illegal immigration of peasants, via union busting & driving down wages for blue-collar workers. The Republican leadership was hell-bent on ramming this through.

A few cranks sending emails wouldn't have stopped them. A few organizations with orchestrated email campaigns wouldn't have stopped them. Congressmen long ago learned they can safely ignore 10,000 identical letters.

What stopped them was innumerable outraged individuals communicating with their representatives in Congress, despite every major newspaper editorial board telling them this was a Good Thing, despite the unified approbation for amnesty from both Democratic & GOP leadership, despite Bush's endless tub-thumping.

Of course the amnestyites learned nothing from this experience, & still claim they speak for Americans.

Partisans don't think. They work from their beliefs back towards the facts, selecting & discarding to fit their preconceptions. This is but one example.