More Texas voters think unauthorized immigrants should be allowed to stay in the United States — through either a path to citizenship or work visas — than favor deporting them, according to a new Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News poll.
The poll showed that 38 percent of respondents favoring deportation — drawing the most support of the three options offered. Twenty-nine percent favored a way for unauthorized immigrants to attain citizenship, while 23 percent supported work visas.
Keep in mind that this poll, like all others, is subject to the TP Rule.
Results show a strong partisan split, with 45 percent of Republicans and 28.4 percent of Democrats supporting deportation. Age and race also seemed to factor into participants' responses.
“The young seem to see this as kind of, ‘Yes, just let them have the path to citizenship,' ” Blum said. About 42 percent of those under 30 supported that option, compared to 27 percent of those over 30.
Blacks gave the most support to a pathway to citizenship — 39.6 percent compared to 32.1 percent of Latinos and 26.7 percent of whites.“There have been times when people have thought that minorities would be in competition with each other or would not be supportive of each other,” Blum said. African Americans “were clearly supportive of that (path to citizenship). They were not looking to say, ‘Oh, wait, that's competition for us and send 'em back.' ... The groups that are in favor of deportation are whites and Republicans.”
No. Kidding. I think he forgot to say "old".
Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said, the results seem a bit high on deportation. He said, however, there's more support for deportation in Texas than in the country as a whole. Nationally, he said, 67 percent generally support a path to citizenship, depending on how the question is posed and whether qualifiers are put on the idea, such as granting such status to those who don't have criminal records and who pay a fine. ...
“Why would Democrats not want to give 20 million illegal aliens amnesty with a pathway to citizenship? Because if they do ... they will create 20 million instant voters with a tendency to vote for Democrats, because they will continue to need health care and free education in the United States, and the Democrats are more than willing to give it to them,” said Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, who has pushed bills targeting unauthorized immigrants. ...
State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, said, “From a Democratic standpoint, it behooves the Democratic Party to have Republicans like Leo Berman spew their hateful rhetoric. That's (creating) the next generation of Hispanics that will never vote Republican.”
What can I possibly add to that?
This.
Texas Republican voters will have a chance to give their opinions on such issues as voter identification and federal stimulus spending through five nonbinding resolutions that will appear on the GOP primary ballot.
The resolutions, which include perennial Republican priorities that have failed in the Legislature, were chosen by the State Republican Executive Committee and are designed to send a message to elected leaders in Austin and Washington, D.C.
“These ballot propositions are Texas Republicans' chance to be heard on issues facing our state,” said Republican Party of Texas chairwoman Cathie Adams. “Voters should study the questions and then use their vote to speak directly to their elected officials.” ...
The top resolution would encourage the Legislature to “make it a priority to protect the integrity of our election process by enacting legislation that requires voters to provide valid photo identification in order to cast a ballot in any and all elections” in Texas. ... The second proposition would require government bodies in Texas to limit annual budget increases to “the combined increase of population and inflation unless it first gets voter approval to exceed the allowed annual growth or in the case of an official emergency.” ...
• • Ballot Proposition No. 3: “In addition to aggressively eliminating irresponsible federal spending, Congress should empower American citizens to stimulate the economy by Congress cutting federal income taxes for all federal taxpayers, rather than spending hundreds of billions of dollars on so-called federal economic stimulus.”
• • Ballot Proposition No. 4: “The use of the word ‘God,' prayers and the Ten Commandments should be allowed at public gatherings and public educational institutions, as well as be permitted on government buildings and property.”
• • Ballot Proposition No. 5: “The Texas Legislature should enact legislation requiring a sonogram to be performed and shown to each mother about to undergo a medically unnecessary, elective abortion.”
Extremist rhetoric and unconstitutionality aside, these resolutions aren't even worth the used toilet paper they're printed on. They exist for the same reason that crayons and a coloring page are kept in restaurants: to pacify squalling TeaBaggers.
Update: Voter ID is, pathetically, the most important statewide issue in this TeaBagger's mind. Excerpt following is from the link to the HouChron; only click on the one embedded below if you have plenty of disinfectant close by.
Texas will face a mega billion-dollar budget shortfall next year.
Don't be surprised if schools sue the state again over education funding.
And traffic congestion gets worse by the day.
But the biggest issue facing Texas?
Voter ID, based on a flyer mailed to West Austin voters by Paul Workman, a candidate for the state House.
The entire mail piece focuses on Voter ID and reviews last year's fight that ended without any legislation passing.
"Paul will take our fight to our Capitol and help pass a strong, constitutional Voter ID law... in the last session of the Legislature, House liberals sustained a filibuster for five days just to ensure that Voter ID didn't come up for debate," the Republican candidate says in his mail piece.
Actually, the House does not have a filibuster rule. (ed. note: it is called "chubbing")
Left unsaid is that Democrat leaders were willing to compromise. They would have supported Voter ID if House Republicans went along with a provision that made early voting easier. Any qualified voter could show up - with ID - and register as they voted. The vote would count only if the voter was determined to be qualified. The same-day registration would have applied only for the early voting period.
It would have made voting both easier and more secure. Both sides won have won something. But Republicans balked, leaving Democrats to wonder if the true intent was to suppress voting by making it harder.
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