A Wall Street Journal headline Thursday stated: “Americans Want the Immigration Bill Congress Won’t Pass.” Citing the Journal’s own polling, the article suggested that “voters crave a blueprint for compromise that Congress has all but abandoned.”
However, a more accurate description of the dynamic would be to say that reform efforts “repeatedly failed in recent years” because Congress stubbornly refuses to listen to the American people.
In a general sense, it’s fair to say that voters would like some kind of overarching immigration reform. My own polling shows that 64% of voters say they believe that legal immigration is good for America while also believing that illegal immigration is bad. Such voters recognize the system is broken and want it fixed.
However, there is a simple reason that “comprehensive” immigration reform efforts are doomed to…
