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Commonsense Immigration Policies Enjoy Broad Voter Support

FAIR Newsletter | Article 4 of 5 | April 2020 | Visit Our Newsletter Page | Full PDF Version

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In case you haven’t noticed, 2020 is an election year and immigration figures to again weigh heavily on voters’ minds when they go to the polls. According to a Harvard/Harris poll, which issues a comprehensive snapshot of public opinion on a wide range of public policy issues each month, support for commonsense immigration policies enjoy overwhelming voter support.

In contrast to some of the radical open borders and anti-enforcement positions staked out by candidates seeking to oppose President Trump in November, American voters stand squarely in favor of enforcing immigration laws and adopting merit-based legal immigration policies. Voters also overwhelmingly oppose sanctuary policies or other policies that grant illegal aliens new benefits. The poll was conducted in February and the results were released in March.

The latest Harvard/Harris poll demonstrates that FAIR stands in the mainstream of American public opinion on immigration. The polling results also highlight the distorted picture of the immigration policy debate that is presented by the elitist corporate media. The attention and exposure that the media give to the mass immigration/open-borders advocates is vastly disproportionate to the constituencies they represent.

The poll indicates that as the views of mass immigration advocacy groups (and the politicians who pander to them) become ever more radical – abolishing ICE, granting unconditional mass amnesty, decriminalizing illegal immigration, granting health care and other social benefits to illegal aliens, and more – politicians who represent and protect the interests of the American people in the immigration debate will be rewarded on Election Day.

Among the key immigration findings of the Harvard/Harris poll were:

  •  60 percent of voters approve of a new administration rule aimed at denying green cards to immigrants who are likely to wind up as public charges.
     
  • 76 percent support policies that would crack down on illegal aliens who commit crimes or are arrested by requiring local governments to turn them over to immigration authorities or face the loss of law enforcement funding. 55 percent support sanctions against sanctuary jurisdictions.
     
  • 79 percent said they would support an “immigration halt” if the COVID-19 virus became a pandemic. (The poll was conducted before the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic.)
     
  • 61 percent support “comprehensive immigration reform that includes strengthened borders, a wall along the southern border, eliminates chain immigration and visa lotteries and replaces the system with one based on merit.” The question also included a trade-off of amnesty for current illegal aliens. It is not possible to determine how much the inclusion of amnesty influenced support or opposition. 
     
  • Only about one-third of voters support the idea of granting driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. 
     
  • As we approach a national election, 67 percent of voters support “Requiring National ID cards for voting.”