By Robert Laurie ——Bio and Archives--January 23, 2018
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Eighty-one percent of Americans want one million or fewer legal immigrants to the United States per year, according to new polling datareleased Monday by the Harvard-Harris poll, a number lower than the 1.38 million who came to the United States in 2015. The plurality of respondents, 35 percent, think that there should be between 1 and 250,000 legal immigrants arriving to the United States per year. A net 12 percent want to see immigration increased to 1.5 million people per year or more, while nine percent of Americans think that there should be no new legal immigrants. Plurality preference for between 1 and 250,000 new immigrants a year persists across white, Hispanic, and black Americans, as well as moderates and self-identified Democrats. Such a rate of immigration would be lower even than the rate expected from the RAISE Act, a bill backed by the administration and expected to cut immigration in half in ten years.
Plurality preference for between 1 and 250,000 new immigrants a year persists across white, Hispanic, and black Americans, as well as moderates and self-identified Democrats. Such a rate of immigration would be lower even than the rate expected from the RAISE Act, a bill backed by the administration and expected to cut immigration in half in ten years.The complete poll does have some not-so-thrilling approval numbers for Donald Trump, but forget about him for a moment. Consider this: For the last few years, Democrats have - almost across the board - abandoned issues that matter to working Americans in favor of supporting their march toward expanding legal and illegal immigration. We've already discussed the Schumer catastrophe, but think back to the last election. Hillary's people made it clear that they didn't give a rat's rear about white, middle class, families - they very specifically said they were going to win without them. They told coal workers to find new jobs, told Christians to abandon their faith, screamed "racism" and “misogyny" at everyone within earshot, and labeled anyone who disagreed "a deplorable." Through all of that, she and her cronies beat the immigration drum until it became synonymous with their party. Now, they have a problem. Conservatives have always been fine with regulated, vetted, merit-based legal immigration, but that's never been what Democrats are after. If the Harvard-Harris poll is correct, and I suspect it is, the Democratic party's central issue has become a major millstone. If they intend to go into 2018 with the same immigration platform (and I honestly don't see how they can walk it back) the hypothetical 'red wave' is going to become an undertow.
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