Fred Lucas writes in a March 4 CNSNews.com article:
Obama has long supported a “comprehensive immigration reform” that supporters call a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens and opponents call “amnesty.” But such legislation–backed by the immigration lobby and some pro-business organizations–was defeated in Congress during 2005 and 2007, and was deeply unpopular with the public.
Of course, as we’ve documented, CNS is one of those opponents who insist on (falsely) describing immigration reform as “amnesty.” But Lucas is lying when he says that comprehensive immigration reform is “deeply unpopular with the public.”
A November 2009 Pew Research poll found that 63 percent of the general public supported a bill to provide a “path to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants — and that 54 percent still supported it when the same bill was described as “amnesty.”
That’s not the only one: An August 2010 Politico poll found that 61 percent of Democrats and independents, as well as 59 percent of Republicans, belive that Congress should “pass comprehensive immigration law guidelines now.”
Meanwhile, a July 2010 Gallup poll found that Americans are about equally divided — 50 percent to 45 percent — over whether the government’s main focus should be on halting the flow of illegal immigrants coming into the U.S., or on developing a plan to deal with those already here. That might offer some backup for Lucas’ position, but even then, you have to seriously spin things to portray comprehensive reform as “deeply unpopular.”