June 9, 2006
The Christian Science Monitor reports that polls conducted by the Republican National Committee suggest that all the anti-immigrant noise we hear comes from a very vocal minority. The 6/9/06 article states that, “The RNC poll tested a number of messages on immigration and found that the candidate who focuses only on border security loses to the candidate who talks about comprehensive reform, 25 percent to 71 percent. Seventy percent of voters – and 64 percent of Republicans – say illegal immigrants who have put down roots in the US should be granted legal status if they ‘go to the back of the line, pay a fine, pay back taxes, learn English, and have a clean criminal record,’ according to this poll. Only 25 percent say that would be amnesty.” These numbers belie the sense that talk radio and much of the press portrays that America is solidly against comprehensive immigration reform. As I previously wrote in my Majority of the Majority entry, when the voice of the majority of America is heard, the immigration position is a reasonable, middle-ground approach. Getting the majority to speak, however, is always a difficult task. As the restrictionist camps know well, it is the squeaky wheel that gets the oil.
