Yesterday I posted about how out-of-step with the American public the Republicans are regarding the refugee children from Central America who turned themselves in at the border. But the issue is much bigger than that. The GOP is out-of-step with the American people on immigration in general.
The Republican Party in Congress doesn't want to reform our badly broken immigration laws. They only want to increase security at the border to please the ethnic hatred of their teabagger base (note that they don't seem to care much about the much larger and more porous border with Canada, because most Canadians are white while most crossing our southern border have brown skins).
But that is not what the public wants. As the chart above shows (made from a recent poll by the Public Religion Research Institute), a significant majority of Americans want real immigration reform (and that desire has remained steady, even in recent months) -- including a reasonable path to citizenship for the immigrants who desire it. They know our current immigration laws are not only unfair, and no longer work for the benefit of the country.
The Republicans continue to tell lies about immigrants crossing our southern border. Maybe they think if they repeat these lies enough, then someone other than their bigoted base will start to believe them. So far, they have not been able to fool most Americans.
The GOP says there is still a flood of undocumented immigrants crossing our southern border. The truth is that the rate of growth of undocumented immigrants in this country is at or near zero (meaning the influx has slowed, and there are as many leaving the U.S. as entering it).
The GOP says our border is not secure. But there are more Border Patrol agents on our southern border than ever before, and they have the latest technology. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security give our border security its top rating.
The GOP says crossing the border without the proper papers is a criminal offense. That is not true. A criminal offense is subject to imprisonment, but crossing the border without documentation is a civil offense that is "punishable" only by deportation.
The GOP says they just want to protect Americans from the criminals crossing the border. But a look at our border cities shows that is another lie. They are among the safest cities in America. Undocumented immigrants are actually far less likely to commit a crime than people born in the United States.
The GOP says the undocumented immigrants are just draining American resources with contributing to this country. That's another outrageous lie. Most are honest hard-working people who don;t qualify for many social programs (including the Affordable Care Act), and are too afraid to apply for help even if they did qualify. They also pay billions of dollars in all kinds of taxes -- sales tax, property tax, and yes, even income tax.
Don't let the Republicans scare you with their hateful and bigoted lies. Demand that that stop blocking immigration reform. As a nation of immigrants and their descendants, we should all be angry and disgusted with the GOP's xenophobic lies and obstruction.
NOTE -- The Public Religion Research Institute's survey was done between July 23rd and 27th of a random national sample of 1,026 adults, and has a margin of error of 3.1 points.
(The cartoon image above is by Barry Deutsch at leftycartoons.com.)
