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Markup Fact Check #2: Sen. Grassley Ignores Public Opinion on “Enforcement First”

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At the Senate Judiciary Committee markup, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) claimed that Americans want to address border security only, and wait on broader immigration reform.  A recent New York Times/CBS news poll addresses this very question, and proves Senator Grassley is out of touch with public opinion on this issue.

According to the poll, 83% of Americans support “providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the U.S. if they meet certain requirements,” while only 14% oppose it.  Of those in favor, only 35% believe immigrants “should be allowed to obtain legal status only after the border is secure,” while fully 56% say “they should be allowed to obtain legal status while border security is still being strengthened.”

Numerous other polls have shown that voters support a both/and rather than an “either/or” approach to unauthorized immigration.  That is, they support stronger enforcement and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, not one at the expense of the other.

Said Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice Education Fund:

Sen. Grassley is not only ignoring the reality on the border but distorting public opinion. All this posturing about doing ‘enforcement first’ isn’t responding to the people’s will—if it were, Senator Grassley would be in favor of commonsense immigration reform.  This is just another transparent attempt to derail reform and prevent 11 million Americans-in-waiting from starting down the road to citizenship.