December 31, 2009
By Christopher Neefus
CNSNews
American Jews and Christians hold views about illegal immigration that are largely at odds with those of their spiritual leaders, according to a new poll from Zogby International.
The poll showed that while most religious leaders saw illegal immigration as a problem caused by barriers to legal immigration, most worshippers thought a lack of enforcement of current law was the problem; and while leaders thought employers needed access to more immigrant labor, rank-and-file members thought employers needed to attract more domestic workers.
Photo: The San Ysidro port of entry, as seen from the Mexican side. Four people were injured here Tuesday in a gun battle involving an attempt to smuggle illegal immigrants from Mexico at the busiest border crossing in the U.S., authorities said. (AP /Guillermo Arias)
Steven A. Camarota, the research director for the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies said the results revealed a “huge divide” between religious leaders and the general religious population, although one that had been telegraphed in policy debates before.
“The huge divide between rank-and-file Jews and Christians and many of their leaders is actually not that surprising,” Camarota said in his analysis. “Prior research shows a very significant divide between opinions of the public and of elites on the issue of immigration. Religious groups follow this same pattern.”
Zogby asked respondents to choose whether they thought “We need to allow more immigrants into the country to fill (unskilled labor) jobs because there aren’t enough Americans willing or able to do them” or “There are plenty of Americans already here to do these jobs; if employers can’t find workers, they should pay more and treat workers better.”
The Catholic Church’s position is that legal immigration should be increased to provide employers with more unskilled laborers and that there should be a “path to permanent residency which is achievable/verifiable.” Yet 69 percent of Catholics believe there are plenty of American workers available to do the jobs. Just 12 percent sided with the Catholic bishops.
The numbers are similar for mainline Protestants (73-10), Evangelical Protestants (75-7), and Jews (61-16), all express general opposition to the positions taken by their leaders.
Respondents were also asked about the 38 million legal and illegal immigrants currently in the U.S., and the 1.5 million new immigrants coming in each year in the past decade: “Putting aside the question of legal status for a moment, and focusing only on the totals, is the number of immigrants entering the country each year too high, too low, or just right?”
Again, while religious leaders want the flow of immigration increased, their rank-and-file disagreed: 69 percent of Catholics said the number was too high, 14 percent said it was just right, and only 4 percent said it was too low. Among Mainline Protestants, 72 percent said too high, 11 percent said just right and only 2 percent said too low. More Jews than any other religious group thought the number of immigrants was too low, but that still topped out at only 5 percent (with 10 times as many -- or 50 percent -- saying the number was too high).
Camarota said if President Obama and Congress decide to tackle comprehensive immigration reform next year, as is expected, the debate will highlight the divisions.
“Because religious communities often do not represent the public policy views of their members, if there is a full-blown immigration debate next year, it will be all the more contentious,” he said. “Jewish and Christian leaders will line up on one side of the issue and their members and the general public will be on the other, with elected officials in the middle.”
According to the Zogby poll, the general public also overwhelmingly thinks immigration levels are too high already (67 percent say "too high" versus 14 percent for "just right").
Roy Beck, executive director of the non-partisan NumbersUSA, which opposes a path to citizenship, says the numbers show comprehensive immigration reform could be politically toxic next year.
“What we’ve seen in the last two years is this great increase in the national religious leaders pushing it,” he said. “It’s sort of become the trendy social cause for religious leaders and especially evangelicals. And I think this idea that somehow the people in the pews are softening up on this-- I think the polls show it’s just not there.”
The National Association of Evangelicals adopted a resolution in October that calls for reunification of families of illegals straddling two sides of the border, and said: “There must be a sound, equitable process for currently undocumented immigrants who wish to assume the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship to earn legal status.” The rationale listed was to provide an “adequate number” of immigrants for the workforce and for family reunification.
Yet only 3 percent of self-described born-again Protestants or evangelicals said the number of immigrants in the country was too low.
Beck said the results of the poll had already been seen during the Bush administration, when it too tried to pass immigration reform laws that were labeled an “amnesty” program, but the difference was that religious leaders were now rallying behind the cause.
“It confirms what a lot of us know,” he said, “but if you look at most of the stories that are run in the mainstream media, (they) all year have suggested that somehow or another, conditions have changed -- that despite the fact that we’re in a big recession, somehow or another, attitudes have changed and that’s why comprehensive immigration reform has a chance now.
“By going in and looking at the various religious groups, where presumably I guess the sort of the compassion rhetoric might work the most, it’s not working,” he said.
Beck suggested leaders in the Obama administration and Congress know how unpopular immigration reform including a path to citizenship could be, pointing to reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends not to force her members to take a vote on the issue in 2010 unless the Senate already has. “She has her own internal polls,” he said, “telling her how unpopular it is.”
He added: “If you look at the health care bill and how unpopular that is, this is way more unpopular.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/59164