Where is America on Immigration reform?

Immigration reform will be one of the hottest topics during 2012 elections.   Face it, America is a great place to be and the attainment of the American dream is still sought after.  Even the newly formed Tequila Party, a Latino grassroots advocacy organization, seeks to support elected officials who are proponents of immigration reform.

Future immigration reform policies will cause the American public to play a significant role in shaping policy affecting the status of illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.   A poll conducted by Impre Media and Latino Decisions shows a detailed analysis of the personal relationship between the Latino community and immigration policies.  To sum up the analysis in a few words, Latino Decisions called the analysis evidence that “Immigration reform is personal for Latinos”.

54% of the polled registered Latino voters said that they knew someone who was undocumented, while 25% said they had a family member or knew a person who was being deported.

A separate poll conducted by Gallup in early December 2010 shows a favorable 54% of the American public would favor a law that would allow illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to gain a legal resident status if they joined the military and went to college.  The “Dream Act”, which failed to pass Congress during late December 2010, was identical to the policy above.

There is  also the Time Poll conducted by SRBI, where 62% of Americans strongly oppose amending the 14^th amendment to the Constitution which grants children born on U.S. soil legal resident status.   Many Republican Congressional leaders, however, favor amending the 14^th amendment to deny citizenship to immigrants born on U.S. soil as a solution to immigration reform.

Under Governor Jerry Brown, California has implemented parts of the dream act.   The law signed by Brown eases access to privately funded financial aid for undocumented college students.  Brown also inquired that he was likely to support state funded tuition for undocumented students.

America appears to be on track towards a comprehensive immigration reform bill, but Congress and the Federal Government are at odds on how to develope such a plan.

Britton Loftin is a Political Strategist and Director of a Legislative & Government Affairs firm.

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2 Responses to Where is America on Immigration reform?

1. Gail Zoppo says:

   12:57pm August 1, 2011 at 12:57 pm

   Please use "undocumented," not "illegal" immigrants in your prose.

   Reply
2. dnb says:

   1:55am August 7, 2011 at 1:55 am

   i think they should at least let the ones married to us citizens get some kind of documentation so they can work and support their families so they can stay out of the welfare system

   Reply