Trump speaks for America: Deport illegals!

By Garth Kant

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WASHINGTON – Who is in the mainstream on immigration: Donald Trump or the political elite of the Democratic and Republican Parties?

The polling evidence indicates it’s Trump.

In fact, the enduring popularity of the Republican front-runner may be no mystery at all, given a recent Rasmussen poll that shows an overwhelming 60 percent of likely American voters support deportation of illegal immigrants.

The numbers get even stronger.

Rasumussen says its new poll published Wednesday shows, “As far as voters are concerned – and not just Republicans – Donald Trump has a winning formula for fighting illegal immigration.”

  • 70 percent of likely Republican voters agree with Trump that the United States should build a wall along the Mexican border to help stop illegal immigration.
  • Among all likely voters, 51 percent favor building a wall on the border; just 37% disagree.
  • 92 percent  of Republicans agree that the United States should deport all illegal immigrants who have been convicted of a felony in this country.
  • 80 percent of all likely voters support the deportation of all illegal immigrants convicted of a felony.
  • A Rasmussen poll published two weeks ago showed 54 percent of voters disagree that a child born to an illegal immigrant in the country should automatically become a U.S. citizen.

After Trump released his detailed immigration plan on Sunday, the establishment response was typified in a Washington Post editorial on Monday with a headline that screamed: “Donald Trump’s immigration plan would wreak havoc on U.S. society.”

Trump’s plan essentially calls for securing the border, enforcing existing immigration laws and protecting American jobs.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Mexican border in Laredo, Texas, on July 23, 2015
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at Mexican border in Laredo, Texas, on July 23, 2015

The Post claimed “the large majority of Americans don’t agree” with Trump, and he is popular with merely “the most conservative slice of the Republican primary electorate.”

The numbers prove otherwise, in most every respect.

What appeared to most concern the Post, and editorial boards at other mainstream media outlets across the country, was the prospect of deporting millions of illegal immigrants.

However, Trump’s plan does not actually mention deportation.

It does state, “Illegal aliens apprehended crossing the border must be detained until they are sent home, no more catch-and-release,” and it calls for the “mandatory return of all criminal aliens.”

And, when asked about the illegals in the country, Trump did tell NBC, “They’ve got to go.”

The Post simply declared most Americans oppose the idea of deporting millions of illegal immigrants.

But the polls show that is not true.

American mainstream wants deportation

Deportation of illegal immigrants is overwhelmingly favored over amnesty by the American mainstream, according to a Rasmussen poll published two weeks ago.

The poll found a whopping 60 percent of “likely U.S. voters think the U.S. government is not aggressive enough in deporting those who are in this country illegally.”

Rasmussen also found the number of Americans favoring deportation is increasing.

52 percent favored deportation in April 2014.

Polls also show deportation is favored among the mainstream of American workers.

A Zogby poll found:

  • 58 percent of union members said deportation laws should be enforced.
  • 67 percent of small business owners said deportation laws should be enforced.
  • 59 percent of CEOs, CFOs, vice presidents and other business executives said deportation laws should be enforced.

Additionally, the Washington Examiner’s Byron York unearthed a recent academic paper, by Stanford professor David Broockman and Berkeley Ph.D candidate Douglas Ahler, that “suggests a majority of the public’s views on immigration are closer to Trump’s than to the advocates of comprehensive immigration reform.”

Illegal-immigrants-climbing-over-border-fence

It showed 55.2 percent of American favored blocking the border and allowing only highly skilled immigrants into the country.

When given seven options, “The largest single group, 24.4 percent, supported the most draconian option – closed borders and mass deportation – that is dismissed by every candidate in the race, including Trump.”

“It’s probably fair to say that, if Broockman and Ahler are correct, a majority of Americans – not just Republican voters, but all Americans – hold views that are consistent with Trump’s position, or are even more restrictive,” suggested York.

“Many citizens support policies that seem to fall outside of the range of policy options considered in elite discourse,” said Broockman and Ahler.

Concluded York, “Opponents like (Sen. Lindsey) Graham portray Trump’s immigration position as far out of the mainstream, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.”

Trump plan ‘mainstream’

One of the designers of the Trump plan emphasized it was, in fact, “mainstream.”

As WND reported, Trump developed his plan in consultation with the office of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. The senator has long warned of dangers of runaway levels of immigration, both illegal and legal.

On Fox News Monday night, Sessions said, “[I]t’s just a mainstream plan to do what politicians have been  promising to do for 30 years, and haven’t done. These are things like end the jobs magnet by not allowing people who are here legally to get jobs. You strengthen border enforcement. You stop the visa overstays.”

Sessions noted that much of the plan simply relies upon enforcing existing law.

And USA Today reported Tuesday, “Despite criticism from some GOP presidential contenders this week of Donald Trump’s immigration plan, the six-page proposal is actually a collection of what many Republicans have already been pushing on the campaign trail.”

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For instance, Jeb Bush’s immigration plan also calls for finding and deporting immigrants who enter the country legally but overstay their visas.

Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., and Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wisc.
Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., and Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wisc.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., also call for scaling back the legal immigration system to protect American workers.

And virtually all GOP candidates agree on securing the border, ending sanctuary cities and improving immigration checks of employees.

The difference?

The paper quoted Bob Dane of the Federation for American Immigration Reform as saying, “There’s absolutely nothing new or radical about Trump’s plan,” while adding Trump is the first candidate to embrace virtually the entire spectrum of ideas from immigration hard-liners.

But, what are considered hard-liners in the media might be called average Americans, according to polling data WND compiled in July.

A large body of evidence shows the glut of immigrants is hurting American workers across the board, except for the most affluent.

And the numbers suggest Republicans might make inroads with many of the workers who once comprised the Reagan coalition, by strongly opposing immigration.

Polling data show, far from supporting the sort of “comprehensive immigration reform” that would include amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegals favored by the elites of both parties, most Americans don’t see increasing immigration as good for the country, its economy or society.

  • A Reuters poll found Americans, by an almost 3 to 1 margin, wish to see immigration reduced, not increased; 45 percent want to see a reduction, 17 percent want to see an increase and 38 percent say it should stay the same.
  • Sixty-three percent said immigrants are a burden on the economy.
  • Seventy percent believe illegal immigration threatens traditional U.S. beliefs and customs.
  • Gallup found 60 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with the level of immigration into the country today. That was an increase of six percentage points from 2014.
  • A Pew poll showed 69 percent want to restrict and control immigration rates. That included 72 percent of whites, 66 percent of blacks and, significantly, 59 percent of Hispanics.
  • And, a Polling Company exit poll found a paltry 20 percent of voters in the November elections supported President Obama’s executive amnesty.

Additional polling indicates opposition to immigration and support for the type of policies favored by Trump is strong in the American mainstream and popular across every segment of society.

Union members

Union leaders support amnesty and massive immigration but union members do not.

The AFL-CIO once opposed amnesty because of the negative effects of illegal immigration upon wages and unemployment rates, but now looks at the onslaught of foreign workers as a way to replenish dwindling membership.

And, suddenly, anyone who opposes that is a racist.

Illegal immigrants at a detention center
Illegal immigrants at a detention center

“The voices against immigration reform, if you brush everything else aside, are really colored by bigotry,” said AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka in March.

By that standard, an overwhelming majority of the union members Trumka represents could be labeled bigots.

A Zogby poll found:

  • 63 percent of union households said immigration is too high; 5 percent said too low; 14 percent said just right.
  • 58 percent said deportation laws should be enforced; 28 percent supported the legalization of illegal immigrants.
  • 10 percent said immigration should be increased to fill unskilled job openings; 72 percent said plenty of Americans are available, employers just need to pay more.
  • 13 percent said illegal immigration is caused by strict legal immigration laws; 74 percent said it was because of inadequate enforcement efforts.

Blue-collar workers

A national survey on President Obama’s executive amnesty found:

  • 62 percent of blue-collar workers opposed the president’s actions to block the deportation of 5 million immigrants in the country illegally.
  • That included 47 percent who strongly opposed it.
  • Only about 32 percent supported it.

A study by professor Eric Gould of Georgetown and Hebrew University found trade policy and uncontrolled immigration have lowered blue-collar wages and increased the wealth gap.

He wrote, “[A]n influx of low-skilled immigrants increases inequality. … The overall evidence suggests that the manufacturing and immigration trends have hollowed-out the overall demand for middle-skilled workers in all sectors, while increasing the supply of workers in lower skilled jobs. Both phenomena are producing downward pressure on the relative wages of workers at the low end of the income distribution.”

AudacityofHopeEven Obama recognized the problem before he became president.

In his 2006 autobiography, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama wrote, “[T]here’s no denying that many blacks share the same anxieties as many whites about the wave of illegal immigration flooding our Southern border — a sense that what’s happening now is fundamentally different from what has gone on before.

“The number of immigrants added to the labor force every year is of a magnitude not seen in this country for over a century,” he continued.

“If this huge influx of mostly low-skill workers provides some benefits to the economy as a whole – specially by keeping our workforce young, in contrast to an increasingly geriatric Europe and Japan – it also threatens to depress further the wages of blue-collar Americans and put strains on an already overburdened safety net.”

Small Business Owners

The Zogby poll found small business owners overwhelmingly oppose massive immigration and support deportation.

  • 67 percent said deportation laws should be enforced; 22 percent supported the legalization of illegal immigrants.
  • 70 percent said all immigration is too high; 4 percent said too low; 13 percent said just right.
  • 13 percent said immigration should be increased to fill unskilled job openings; 65 percent said plenty of Americans are available, employers just need to pay more.
  • 10 percent said illegal immigration is caused by strict legal immigration laws; 79 percent said it is because of inadequate enforcement efforts.

Business executives

Zogby even found overwhelming opposition to massive immigration and support for deportation among CEOs, CFOs, vice presidents and other business executives.

  • 59 percent said deportation laws should be enforced; 30 percent supported the legalization of illegal immigrants.
  • 63 percent said immigration is too high; 5 percent said too low; 16 percent said just right.
  • Significantly, just 16 percent said immigration should be increased to fill unskilled job openings; 61 percent said plenty of Americans are available, employers just need to pay more.
  • 13 percent said illegal immigration is caused by strict legal immigration laws; 75 percent said it is because of inadequate enforcement efforts.

White-collar workers

Contrary to the assertions of Silicon Valley kingpins, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and political elites (including virtually every conservative senator except Sessions), there is no evidence of a need for increased visas for foreign workers skilled in high-tech occupations.

That is because, also contrary to their assertions, there is no shortage of American STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workers. In fact, just the opposite: There is a glut.

According to data from the U.S. Census only one in four Americans with a STEM degree is in a STEM job.

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights member Peter Kirsanow, a former member of the National Labor Relations Board, asked Obama in a letter opposing amnesty, “[I]f there is a shortage of IT workers, why aren’t wages increasing?”

silicon-valleyInstead, he observed, IT wages “now hover around wage levels of the late 1990s.”

Kirsanow said America produces far more science and engineering graduates than there are job openings in their fields.

“The problem,” he continued, “is not that there are insufficient STEM graduates; the problem is that tech companies do not want to pay the wages American workers would demand absent a continual influx of high-tech visa holders.”

He added, “The tech industry is begging for an increase in foreign STEM workers not because there are not enough American STEM workers, or because they are insufficiently talented, but due to its desire for young, cheap, and immobile labor.”

Minorities

Even Hispanics see immigration as a threat to their jobs.

Seventy-one percent told the Polling Company that businesses should increase wages rather than hire more immigrants.

African-Americans see the threat even more acutely, as 86 percent said businesses should increase wages rather than hire more immigrants.

Despite the constant refrain from big business that it hires immigrants because there are jobs “Americans won’t do,” the Polling Company found overwhelming support among Hispanics, African-Americans, Republicans and Democrats for raising wages rather than filling jobs by recruiting foreigners, by a margin of 75 percent to 8 percent.

When asked, “If U.S. businesses have trouble finding workers, what should happen?” respondents were given two choices:

Those who agreed with “They should raise wages and improve working conditions to attract Americans”:

  • 86 percent of blacks
  • 71 percent of Hispanics
  • 73 percent of whites
  • 74 percent of Republicans
  • 79 percent of Democrats
  • 74 percent of independents

Those who agreed with “More immigrant workers should be allowed into the country to fill these jobs”:

  • 3 percent of blacks
  • 11 percent of Hispanics
  • 8 percent of whites
  • 6 percent of Republicans
  • 8 percent of Democrats
  • 8 percent of independents

Follow Garth Kant @DCgarth

Read this related story: Trump calls for Fox to fire pollster.

Garth Kant

Garth Kant is WND Washington news editor. Previously, he spent five years writing, copy-editing and producing at "CNN Headline News," three years writing, copy-editing and training writers at MSNBC, and also served several local TV newsrooms as producer, executive producer and assistant news director. His most recent book is "Capitol Crime: Washington's cover-up of the Killing of Miriam Carey." He also is the author of the McGraw-Hill textbook, "How to Write Television News." Read more of Garth Kant's articles here.


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