New poll shows 60% support for citizenship for undocumenteds

Two new major polls are out today on immigration and Hispanic voters. Taken together they reinforce the argument NDN and many others have been making about public opinion over the last 2 years:

- A majority of Americans are willing to grant citizenship to the 11-12 undocumenteds already here.

- Immigration while an important issue, ranks far below other more pressing concerns - health care, the war, the economy, sometimes education - as an issue of concern with the American people. In the new LA Times poll it comes in as the first choice of 15% of the electorate, virtually the same number it has been at for the last several years.

According to a new Washington Post Poll in New Hampshire, immigration is the top concern of only 19 percent of GOP primary voters there.

- Hispanics are fleeing the GOP.

Taken together these numbers support the argument NDN made in its recent major report, Hispanics Rising, and in our recent commentary on immigration reform. For most Americans immigration is not an issue of great concern; they favor an earned path to citizenship; and the angry GOP rhetoric has managed to alienate the fastest growing part of the American electorate in a way that may cost them the Presidency in 2008.

Click here to read the LA Times poll on immigration, here for the Pew Center report on the Hispanic electorate.