A new Rasmussen poll shows that 57 percent of Americans favor securing the U.S.-Mexico border above legalizing the statuses of the undocumented immigrants already in the country. The number is nearly identical to the outcome of an earlier Rasmussen poll conducted in March.
In the most recent survey, which polled 1,000 likely U.S. voters earlier this month, only 35 percent of respondents thought legalizing the statuses of undocumented immigrants trumped border security.
Reading the results of this latest poll, one word immediately comes to mind: duh. The only shocking bit of these figures is that support for border security isn’t higher.
In fact, much more revealing was a June poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which showed that 53 percent of Latinos believe creating a pathway toward citizenship for undocumented immigrants should be the first priority of U.S. immigration policy; 35 percent said both border security and a pathway to citizenship should be equal priorities, while a mere 10 percent thought border security should be America’s main priority regarding immigration.
Ten percent is appallingly low, and it risks placing Latinos in an anti-American light.
The United States, as a sovereign nation, has the right and the obligation to define and defend its international borders from foreign threats. Since even before Plato described the ideal republic in the 4th century BCE, border security has remained one of the most paramount duties of government. So to suggest that the United States should establish a permeable border along the Rio Grande, where human beings and materials alike may easily come and go, is to deny America its right to nationhood.
Nor should providing a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented be viewed as equally important as border security; it’s not. Legally, the U.S. government owes nothing to the undocumented citizens who lead clandestine lives within one of its 50 states. Plus, providing a pathway to citizenship to the undocumented before we adequately secure our borders will only inflame the illegal immigration crisis — and it is a crisis, for citizens and the undocumented alike.
Nonetheless, America’s responsibility for providing a pathway to citizenship to the undocumented — specifically, those brought here as minors and raised as Americans — is not a legal responsibility, but a moral one. A failed U.S. immigration policy and a defunct immigration system has led to the number of undocumented Americans living inside the country so-called “illegally” through no fault of their own. We cannot punish them for their “illegal” status, just as we cannot condemn a child who accompanies a shoplifting parent. And, to be clear, allowing these children-now-adults to continue living without the basic rights and privileges afforded most people raised in the United States is a form of punish in and of itself.
Border security must be the main priority of America’s immigration policy. Only after the border is secure — which President Obama has done a fine job in getting us closer to — can the country fully focus on providing justice to those America’s immigration system has failed.
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I find it odd how they lump in all Latinos in immigration polling. It is common sense that Chicanos would poll differently on the topic than say Cubans or Boricuas. Just once I would like to see a poll broken down by group. No one would assume Irish and Scottish people believe the same on individuals topics despite the fact they both refer to themselves as Celtic. Show Latinos the same respect.
di- iu-eich
Oh, Mario Ramirez and his racist fear-mongering. The vitriol he spews is of the most vicious and unfounded right-wing political lies and rhetoric. Will you ever stop spewing such nonsense?
United States citizens support border security for good reason – to stop the onslaught that is sowing the seeds for our own destruction – through “Dreamers” (Trojan horses put here by their lawless parents) that will eventually find ways to scam the system and bring in more family members fraudulently, also through misguided immigration policies, plus liberal guilt that doesn’t see the consequences of too much illegal traffic from Mexico, or even through leftist and anti American malice that knows that a perpetual inundation by illegal hoards will eventually sabotage the soverienity of America through reverse colonization. The sad thing is that the numbers of illegal invaders is so great that any form of assimilation is becoming less and less possible – plus deep down inside many don’t want to assimilate, but actually want the nation to give in to them, rather than the other way around. Invasion USA is not a bad Chuck Norris action adventure movie anymore, it’s become a scary reality.
Hey Daniel Ruiz… you have to remember that the reason they lump every “Latino” into the same group is to make “Latinos” look like a larger population than they really are. “Latino”, “Hispanic”, “Chicano” are all artificial identities created in the ’70′s. “Latino/Hispanic” seem to unite those with nothing in common other than backgrounds vaguely related to countries where the Spanish language is important. I’m curious why you use the word Chicano? I was born a decade before the creation of the above mentioned terms, so therefore I don’t subcribe to using said terms to describe myself. I was born in 1961 and back then there was no “Hispanic”, no “Latino” and “Chicano was a pejorative… a racist slur, no different from the words like “Wetback”, “Beaner”, etc. It was Richard Nixon’s administration that came up with the notion of the “Hispanic”. The term “Hispanic” has it’s origin from decisions taken during the first Nixon Administration and was first placed on the 1970 Census form…. “Latino” came about because a segment of the “Hispanic” community didn’t like the word “Hispanic” and chose to embrace the word “Latino” instead… kinda like I say tomato, you say tomahto. And “Chicano” became another word of choice during the ’70′s when a radical political movement decided to embrace the word and use it for their cause. The word “Chicano” was and will always be a pejorative to those of us who know it’s history. Bottom line is…if you broke down every group within the “Latino/Hispanic” community, they wouldn’t look as big as they want you to believe they are.