Republican senators considering voting for the S. 744 immigration bill will find little support among the voters on whom they most depend for both Primary and General elections, according to a Pulse Opinion Research survey of 1,000 likely voters on June 17.
"Perhaps Republicans' corporate donors are cheered by a bill that the Congressional Budget Office finds would lower the wages of American workers by pouring too many foreign workers into the labor market," said Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, a grassroots organization that sponsored the poll and which favors lower immigration levels. "But the poll shows that the demographic groups who tend to provide the votes to put Republicans into office won't be at all pleased if Senators vote for the bill's huge increases in immigrant workers."
Key findings of the poll include:
- Every demographic group showed low support for the bill's increase in less-educated foreign workers, including Republicans (7%), moderates (8%), high school grads (4%), Hispanics (19%) and the young age 18-39 (14%).
- Given two options, only 14% of all likely voters chose the S. 744 supporters' claims that "labor shortages require increases in less-educated foreign workers" for "construction, hospitality and other service occupations." But 73% chose the opponents' claim that there are "plenty of unemployed less-educated Americans to fill the jobs."
- Only 22% of all likely voters agreed with supporters of the bill who say "bringing in more immigrant workers would create economic growth which would provide more jobs for unemployed Americans." But 66% agreed with opponents of the bill who say "adding more immigrant workers would increase job competition for unemployed Americans, making it harder for them to find jobs."
- The most consistent finding across demographic groups in the poll was in response to a question of whether, before seeking new foreign workers, businesses should try harder to recruit from among Black and Hispanic Americans who suffer the nation's highest unemployment rates. Among all likely voters, 82% agreed. The only demographic group with a significant difference was Hispanic voters, 67% of whom said businesses should do more to hire from among the seriously unemployed Americans.
