Accidental Blogger

One oft repeated and widely accepted truism during the recent debate in Congress and marches on the streets regarding illegal immigration and the plight of undocumented workers in the US, is that there is little or no support for them among African Americans or recently arrived legal immigrants. The reasons for the supposed disaffection are:

• African Americans resent "illegal aliens" because they take away low paying jobs from the poor in the community and drive down wages.
• Legal immigrants are annoyed with them because they see illegal immigrants breaking the laws that they themselves patiently abided by, in order to gain entry to this country.

But there are two reports in today’s paper which go against this conventional wisdom – one from Houston and the other the result of a national poll.  While illegal immigration has little support among  Americans, largely because of security reasons in the shadow of 9/11, most immigrants and many African Americans do not feel as harshly towards undocumented workers already here, as some would have us believe.

Local black leaders voice solidarity with Hispanic protesters

Blacks, while not visible in this week’s student walkouts and rallies against immigration legislation before Congress, say they support the local Hispanic community in its protests.

That support comes despite a local 2005 survey showing that 66 percent of U.S.-born blacks say the country should admit fewer legal immigrants in the next 10 years. Nevertheless, some local black leaders, who compared the Hispanic protests to the black civil rights movement, said this week they support undocumented workers becoming U.S. citizens.

"I think it’s important to show solidarity with people who are trying to better their lives," said the Rev. Michael P. Williams, a Houston Community College trustee. "We need to put them on a pathway toward full participation legally in this country."

Sylvia Brooks, president and CEO of the Houston Area Urban League, and Yolanda Smith, executive director of the Houston chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said their organizations have not taken an official position on the immigration bill.

They said, however, the illegal immigrants in this country should be allowed to remain."

AND..

What legal immigrants are saying (you’ll be surprised)  : By DAVID S. BRODER

BY turning out close to a million people in cities from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., for demonstrations against punitive immigration laws, the Hispanic community has delivered a timely reminder of the often-forgotten voice in this national debate.

For too long, others with shaky claims to authenticity have attempted to speak on behalf of the immigrants who are most affected by the laws and regulations now being debated in Congress.

It was not until recently that the first substantial poll of immigrants was taken. Its findings give the lie to one of the most frequent claims from those who want to "crack down" on illegal immigration, the assertion that undocumented workers are resented by those who have come to this country legally.

This week, Sergio Bendixen, a respected professional pollster, briefed me on the survey his firm had just completed of 800 legal immigrants, from 43 different countries, living in 47 states — a cross section carefully designed to mirror the makeup of the 26 million legal immigrants the Census counts. To assure accuracy, Bendixen arranged to interview subjects in their native languages, whenever they requested.

When he probed these legal immigrants for their attitude toward the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, Bendixen asked two key questions. By a margin of 81 percent to 11 percent, the legal immigrants said they think the illegals are taking jobs that legal residents and citizens do not want to do, rather than taking jobs away from them.

And 73 percent of them said the illegals help the economy by providing low-cost labor, while only 17 percent said they hurt the economy by driving down wages — a favorite contention of those who want to restrict immigration.

Backers of the tough House-passed bill to make it a crime to enter the country illegally contend that a guest worker program of the kind the Senate Judiciary Committee this week included in its bill would allow illegals to "cut into line" ahead of those who are waiting to become citizens legally.

But Bendixen said the interviews found that "the resentment isn’t there." He said that one woman, an accountant, who gained her citizenship by following the rules, explained, " ‘I came first class. The illegals are coming coach — they do jobs I didn’t have to do and they live outside the law.’

"She didn’t feel that she was in competition with them," Bendixen said. "She felt sympathy for them."

Surprised?  I was too, but pleasantly. Another politically motivated myth bites the dust.