Eighty percent of voters polled on Election Day say new jobs should go to Americans and legal immigrants, not to illegal immigrants, including the potential beneficiaries of President Barack Obama’s planned executive amnesty, says an election-day poll of 806 voters.
“Voters overwhelmingly prefer an immigration system that protects American workers,” says a memo released with the poll by Kellyanne Conway, founder of the polling company.
“Members of Congress should feel confident that voters will support actions using the power of the purse to protect American workers from Obama’s executive amnesty threat,” the memo said.
GOP leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have already warned Obama against announcing an amnesty or enforcement rollback.
The new telephone survey of 806 voters matches other data showing that most Americans strongly oppose Obama immigration policies, and that many members of his base and that many Latinos also oppose his immigration policies.
Seventy-four percent of respondents in the election-day poll say the president “should work with Congress rather than around Congress on immigration … [and] 80 percent want new jobs created by the economy to go to American workers and legal immigrants already in the country,” said the memo.
It showed that “majorities of men (75%), women (74%), whites (79%), blacks (59%), and Hispanics (54%) all recommended that the President collaborate with Congress before changing immigration law.”
The demand that new jobs go to Americans and established immigrants “is a matter of fairness to them,” Conway told The Daily Caller.
“The question of fairness is usually about ‘what’s fair to the illegal immigrants,'” Conway said.
Each year, 4.3 million Americans turn 18, and face competition for jobs from roughly 10 million unemployed Americans, 11 million illegal immigrants, plus the annual inflow of 1.1 million new legal immigrants and 70,000 guest workers.
The poll was conducted for NumbersUSA, which favors a reduction in the annual inflow of immigrants and guest-workers.
“Now people are asking ‘What’s fair to the rest of us? What’s fair to the high school graduates and college students who is looking for a job? What is fair to the union guy who can’t find unemployment? What’s fair to the business owners?” Conway said.
Obama is taking a risk by ignoring the strong opposition to unilateral action, she said.
On Nov. 5, he said he would announce some form of enforcement rollback, even in the face of GOP opposition.
“It is just a fact that this president doesn’t seem in interested in collaboration,” Conway said. “He’s more interested in confrontation than collaboration, in stirring the pot and stoking fears,” she said.
“Obama is making executive amnesty his first resort, and he’s not even bothering to sit down for negotiations,” she said.
