voters support the Arizona law with 23% opposed. This support for Arizona’s SB1070 reflects people’s frustration over Washington’s failure to act on immigration reform. Even more voters--78%--support federal, comprehensive immigration reform. Notably, 84% of those who support the Arizona law also support comprehensive immigration reform, and by a margin of 60% to 18%, voters want the federal government to act instead of letting the states decide.
Republicans in Washington have formed a wall of resistance to working on immigration reform, leaving states like Arizona floundering under the weight of a problem that must be solved at the national level. While some Republicans are calling on the Obama Administration to “make immigration reform a priority” following the judge’s decision, the fact is these same politicians have done nothing to advance the issue this year, and even refused to work with Democrats on a reform proposal this spring. By insisting on “border first” proposals as a precondition for engaging on broader reforms, Arizona’s own Senators Jon Kyl and John McCain are also blocking the only approach that they know will work at a time when Arizona and the rest of the country desperately needs a solution.
Latino voters are re-engaged and energized by immigration: While conventional wisdom has it that western Democrats in close races have the most to “lose” from the court’s ruling, the exact opposite is true. Conservative voters were already motivated to turn out and vote against Democrats this cycle; it is the Democratic base, including the crucial Latino voter group, that needed a reason to show up. In Nevada, Florida, Colorado, Arizona, and elsewhere, new polling shows that the fallout over Arizona’s anti-immigration law is having a mobilizing effect on Latinos, and defining the good guys and bad guys in a way that will hurt Republicans and help Democrats if sustained through the fall. For example, a recent poll from LatinoMetrics, co-sponsored by the Hispanic Federation and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), found that “since the end of 2009, immigration has catapulted to the top issue of personal concern among 1 in 4 Latinos -tied with jobs & the economy.” A poll of Latino voters in CA, CO, FL, and TX from Dr. Ricardo Ramirez of the University of Southern California, for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education ...