Mass deportations get thumbs down

Voters prefer path to citizenship

Published September 20, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Editorials

Rep. Tom Tancredo is not terribly impressed by a new Rocky Mountain News/ CBS 4 poll, conducted Sept. 10-12, that seems to show most Colorado voters disagreeing with his hardline immigration prescription.

More than four times as many voters polled said they'd rather have Congress grant illegal immigrants a path to citizenship than deport them; 61 percent would make naturalization an option for those illegals who paid back taxes and learned English.

A mere 15 percent of those polled want them all sent home.

Wait just one minute, Tancredo protested in a meeting with News editorial writers this week. Those polled should have been given more options, he maintained, since he doesn't advocate mass deportations, either.

If Washington beefed up border security and enforced laws against hiring illegal immigrants, Tancredo argues, the deportation of millions would not be necessary to achieve the same result.

Over time, illegal immigrants would get discouraged and return home.

We're not fully persuaded. Many illegals would surely prefer to take their chances here than in their homelands, even if surviving in the underground economy became far more difficult. An enforcement-only policy would push many of them further into a shadow society. Which is one of numerous reasons we'd rather Congress offer a long-term path to citizenship when it finally cracks down along the border.

We'll grant Tancredo this: He and other hardliners on illegal immigration have succeeded beyond what any reasonable observer would have thought possible several years ago. Immigration has become a huge political issue, as this latest poll confirms once again.

For example, two months after a special session of the legislature to tackle immigration reform, the issue still shares top billing (with the economy) as the one that will most affect Coloradans' choice for governor.

Twenty percent of voters ranked illegal immigration and the economy as the most important issues, beating education, health care, the environment and even energy prices.

Meanwhile, a slight plurality (47 percent vs. 42 percent) said immigration hurts Colorado more than it helps. Now that is a Tancredo-like view.

If there's a lesson here, it's that a political compromise combining enforcement and long-term accommodation of those illegal immigrants already here would reflect the will of most Colordans, and presumably of most Americans.

So far, unfortunately, it doesn't reflect the will of most in Congress.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News