NPR Poll: Voters Support a Hard Stance on Immigration

NPR (here) reported the results of a poll of voters on important issues facing the nation. When it comes to immigration, the Republican base has the biggest internal divisions. Asked to choose between a guest-worker program, which the president supports, and deporting illegal immigrants, a majority of voters chose deportation. But immigration is also a difficult issue for the Democratic leadership in Congress. Like the president, the business community and their Hispanic constituents, Democrats favor an earned path to legalization. But that’s not where most voters stand. When given a choice, 57 percent of poll respondents favored requiring illegal immigrants to re-enter the country legally; only 39 percent favored a path to citizenship. Those are the kinds of numbers that explain why the Republican House abandoned the president’s immigration approach last year — and why neither party may be willing to take a risk on the issue this year.

KJ