Eighty-one percent of Iowans consider it a “worthy goal” to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children, according to the latest statewide poll by Selzer & Co. for the Des Moines Register and Mediacom. The same survey indicates that 65 percent of Iowans support a path to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants.
An estimated 800,000 DREAMers (including 2,681 Iowans) are protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which President Barack Obama enacted in 2012. Some 11 million immigrants are thought to be living in the U.S. without legal authorization, including about 40,000 in Iowa.
Jason Noble reported on the key Iowa poll findings for the Sunday Des Moines Register.
Ninety-three percent of Democrats, 80 percent of independents and 74 percent of Republicans believe citizenship is a worthwhile objective for DACA recipients. So do 86 percent of city dwellers and 73 percent of rural residents. Likewise do 83 percent of Iowans under age 35 and 84 percent of Iowans over 65.
It’s even strong among Iowans who say they’ll vote to re-elect Trump in 2020: 64 percent believe a pathway to citizenship is a worthy goal for people previously covered by DACA. […]
The 65-to-26 percent majority favoring a pathway to citizenship for all undocumented workers marks a sharp increase from the last time the Iowa Poll tested the question. In June 2013, 54 percent of Iowans called the opportunity for citizenship a worthy goal, compared to 38 percent who said it wasn’t.
Among all the demographic distinctions picked up by this year’s poll, just one showed less than majority support for a pathway to citizenship: committed Trump 2020 voters, of whom just 41 percent support citizenship for the undocumented against 51 percent who oppose it.
The survey of 801 Iowa adults was in the field between January 28 and 31, less than ten days after an impasse over a legislative fix for DREAMers led to a partial federal government shutdown. Congress agreed on short-term spending bill to reopen the government after three days, but that funding runs out on February 8.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pledged to allow a vote on DACA. Even if he keeps that promise, House Speaker Paul Ryan is unlikely to bring the legislation to the House floor. Although dozens of Republicans in Congress have said they want to provide a legal pathway for DREAMers, that view is not a majority position in the House GOP or Senate GOP caucus.
The Selzer poll did not ask whether Iowans who support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants are so committed to that stance that they think Democrats should refuse to fund the government until Congress addresses the problem. A nationwide POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, which was in the field on January 20 and 21, found that 47 percent of voters “thought passing a DACA fix was worth shutting down the government,” up from 42 percent in a poll by the same firm taken just before the shutdown. A Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll taken in mid-January indicated that 58 percent of Americans “oppose Democrats voting to shut the government down” over the issue. In a CBS News poll taken last month, respondents who support allowing DREAMers to stay in the country were almost evenly divided over whether the issue was worth risking a shutdown.
The only Iowa Democrat in Congress, Representative Dave Loebsack (IA-02), is on record supporting a DACA fix. However, he has not demanded protection for DREAMers as a condition for approving a spending resolution. I remain pessimistic that Congress will act before DACA protections expire on March 5. Democrats had more leverage in December than they do today.
UPDATE: Seung Min Kim reported for Politico on February 5,
As lawmakers grasp for a solution for the young undocumented immigrants, one option is a temporary extension — perhaps one year — of their legal protections paired with a little bit of cash for border security.
“That may be where we’re headed because, you know, Congress is pretty dysfunctional,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the few to publicly acknowledge the possibility of a temporary fix. “That’d be a real loss. But that’s probably where we’re headed, OK?”
Some senators are already deriding a yearlong patch as “misguided,” a “Plan Z” and a proposal that would keep immigrants “in fear.” But lawmakers have only until March 5 to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program under President Donald Trump’s deadline. […]
The DACA punt appears inevitable, Fresco said — particularly as Trump continually hints of an extension to the March 5 deadline. Trump would be hamstrung from doing that unilaterally, [veteran immigration attorney Leon] Fresco argued, because his Department of Justice has said DACA, enacted under President Barack Obama, was done illegally.
Top image: Screen shot of Karen Ventura from her 2016 YouTube video describing her story as a DREAMer in Iowa.