Majority Of Public Wants Immigration Reform

Once again the Republican Party finds itself at odds with the desires of the general public in this country. It's almost like the GOP is trying to oppose whatever the American public wants done. This time it's immigration reform.

The House GOP killed the reform bill passed by the Senate. They say they want to do the reform in a piecemeal fashion, but that's just their excuse to deny the most important part of immigration reform -- providing a path to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants. They just want to strengthen border security, and ignore any real reform. And the silly part is, more border security is the least needed part of reform. The Homeland Security Department has given our current border security its highest rating -- and there are actually less immigrants coming into the country right now than are leaving (meaning we currently have a negative illegal immigration).

But the American people are smarter than the congressional GOP. About 83% of them consider immigration reform to be a priority -- with 41% wanting that reform immediately, and 42% saying it needs to be done within the next two years. Only 14% say it's not a priority (and support the GOP's delaying tactics).

And the public also opposes the GOP stand on citizenship. About 63% say the reform must contain a path to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants. Only 14% say the immigrants should be allowed to stay without a path to citizenship, and 18% want undocumented immigrants to be located and deported -- even though finding and deporting 11 million immigrants would not only be a physical impossibility, but would seriously damage our economy (because these workers contribute far more than they take from our economy).

Actually, the public would be supportive of a bill far more lenient than the bill passed in the Senate. That bill provided for an onerous 13 year path to citizenship and around $4000 in fines and fees. But 68% of Americans say 13 years is too long a time to earn citizenship, and would rather see a shorter time frame. And a plurality of 43% think the requirement that applicants for citizenship pay $4000 is too much to ask. I agree, since most of them have already been paying taxes (both income and other taxes) -- and they haven't qualified to get any of those taxes back like many citizens do (which means they have actually been overpaying their taxes).

It's time for immigration reform to happen. The president has called for it, and the public wants it to happen -- and happen fairly quickly. The GOP's obstruction simply makes no sense -- and that's just one more reason why they need to be voted out of power in 2014.

The charts above were made from information contained in a new survey by the non-profit and bipartisan Public Religion Research Institute. The survey was done between November 6th and 10th of 1,005 nationwide adults, with a margin of error of 3.1 points.