Clarissa Martinez of the National Council of La Raza has a new piece up at the Huffington Post where she takes the Center for Immigration studies to task over their most recent anti-immigrant poll. While we’re accustomed to the “think tank” pushing their agenda with questionable numbers, this time they make themselves almost laughable.
Clarissa Martinez at Huffington Post:
As if blaming immigrants for global warming, the financial crisis, and every other ill that is currently affecting our society wasn’t enough, Mark Krikorian and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) are taking their junk science one step further. Citing a poll he commissioned, Krikorian now claims that the majority of Latinos prefer “enforcement and for illegal immigrants to return home.” Meaning, Latinos would like the estimated 12 million unauthorized immigrants to leave the country voluntarily or by force, splitting up families, devastating communities, and creating unimaginable hardship. But that is simply at odds with all the evidence we’ve seen and our own experience and years of working with the Latino community across America.
What we know is that the Latino community supports a practical, real immigration reform solution that is in line with America’s values, and that gets unauthorized immigrants on the books and paying taxes, secures our borders, levels the playing field for all American workers, and goes a long way in reducing the hateful rhetoric that Krikorian and his organization clumsily blurt out.
To peddle his bought-and-paid-for results, he chooses to ignore years of polling done by independent sources that clearly show he is wrong.
This smells of desperation. And here is why. Krikorian and his cronies are seeing a crescendo of voices demanding reform, from all over the country and from many different perspectives: law enforcement, faith, labor, business, conservative and progressive groups of all shapes, denominations, and backgrounds are increasing the call for Congress and the administration to fix our broken immigration system. Yes, even conservatives are struggling to figure out a way to address the issue of immigration reform so they can start repairing their relationship with Latinos, the fastest-growing electorate in the country (see Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, Washington Post, and American Principles Project).
And this scares Krikorian and his allies. They are afraid that if the conversation turns sane and pragmatic, which is where the vast majority of the American public is, they will be left out since they are not interested in fixing the system. Their obstructionist, “blame everything on immigrants” strategy is getting stale, particularly among Americans who want solutions, not empty rhetoric.
It’s easy to understand why they would resort to unscientific methods and commission an online poll, first determining the outcome and then artfully shaping the results to make their point: The facts do not support their position.
Read the rest over at the Huffington Post>>
Categories: Fighting Hate
