Senate Debate

A quick follow-up to my previous post on the results of the Pew Hispanic Center study, which showed very clearly that Americans do not see building a wall as an effective way of stemming illegal immigration, and tend to view immigration as less pressing than many other issues. These quotes are from yesterday’s senate debate (or, rather, the senate "statements" since there was no real debate).

From Senator Kyl (R-AZ): "So everybody pretends the law can be enforced when they know it can't. The Government doesn't do anything about it, the employers don't do anything about it. America sees that and Americans say: What happens to a country that isn't enforcing its laws and apparently doesn't have the will to do so?

The American people want serious action. I believe that illustrates how concerned they are that we have not been able to control the borders so far.

They favor a proposal to build a 2,000-mile security fence by a 51-to-37 percent margin. That is a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll. "

From Senator Cornyn (R-TX), who actually has been pilloried by the right for his support of a guest worker program: “But I believe with all my heart that what has brought us to this day and this debate on the Senate floor is because Americans are terribly concerned that in a post-9/11 world, we simply do not have control of our borders.”

Perhaps it all comes back to the basics of precisely how surveys are worded. Yesterday, Senators spewed out all kinds of poll results to make their cases--whether they believe them with all their hearts is hard to tell.