Via Marc Ambinder, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg survey finds that 60 percent of all voters (Democrats, Republicans and independents) are in favor of "a path to citizenship" that includes registration, paying some sort of fine, getting fingerprinted, and learning English. Ambinder points out that while the Republican spin on this is "amnesty," it's actually what the majority of the country today sees as necessary to addressing concerns about immigration.
The Times article gives more results from the poll: 54 percent would deny undocumented immigrants access to emergency medical care, 60 percent would deny them access to public schools, and 82 percent would deny them access to food stamps. Only 22 percent said that illegal immigrants should be allowed to get some form of driver's license.
To be certain, polling results like this make it somewhat of a complicated issue for Democrats. Of course most Americans don't want to hand out licenses or social services to illegal immigrants -- but neither do the Democratic candidates, really. The licenses and social services questions arise in the absence of comprehensive reform that would allow immigrants to become legal. And as this poll shows, Americans do want policy that gives undocumented immigrants a way to become legal, in addition to better border security and penalties for employers who hire undocumented workers.
While the recent debates have tried to simplify the question to "yes" or "no" answers on issues like licenses and whether citizens should have to report their undocumented neighbors, Democrats need to refocus the subject on these broader reforms. The fact of the matter is, we can't have millions of people in our country who are sick, starving, uneducated, and uninformed about traffic laws, and throwing them out isn't a real plan. Comprehensive immigration reform is a real plan, and contrary to what the anti-immigrant rallying in the GOP field would lead one to believe, it's what most Americans want.
--Kate Sheppard
