Illegal, Alien, or Immigrant: The Politics of Immigration Reform

4. Immigrants versus Taxpayers: The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act

104 4 Immigrants versus Taxpayers The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act At 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 8, voting booths across California shut down, but the 1994 general election would resonate long afterwards . Even after its passage, Proposition 187 would linger in the headlines as both supporters and opponents awaited a final decision from ensuing court challenges to the law.1 Pete Wilson hung onto the governorship by talking tough about illegal immigrants and hitching his ailing re-election campaign to the popular measure. The California election, while significant , did not occur in a vacuum. California’s initiative process provided evidence that illegal immigrants remained an unpopular group of people , and that immigration could serve as a rallying point for voters across party and even class lines. The passage of Proposition 187 would matter nationally not only because California was an electoral-vote-rich state, but also because national opinion polls showed that Americans were concerned about the effects that immigration—all immigration—was having on the country. In June of 1993, the New York Times ran a front-page story that declared that “public reaction against immigration” was “growing . . . at a time when many Americans are out of work.”2 The article quoted a concerned postal worker from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, who felt that “our economy is in a bad state and we should take care of our own.” Contrasting a June 1993 survey with one taken in 1986 that asked the same questions , the article argued that anti-immigrant sentiment was growing in response to poor economic conditions and “a perception” held by 68 percent of respondents that recent immigrants were primarily illegal. At the same time, this poll reflects the mixed sentiment with which the American public tends to view immigrants themselves: 36 percent of respondents sensed that immigrants “take jobs away from American citizens,” while 55 percent viewed immigrants as people who “take jobs Americans Newton_pp067-136.indd 104 Newton_pp067-136.indd 104 5/3/08 3:53:47 PM 5/3/08 3:53:47 PM Immigrants versus Taxpayers 105 don’t want,” and the same number agreed with the statement that “today’s immigrants work harder than people born here.” These response rates showed minimal variation from findings for the same line of questioning in 1986.3 Nonetheless, scholars studying public opinion on immigration and immigrants have noted that American resistance to immigration surged in the 1990s, and that this resistance corresponded with a growing sense of economic insecurity in the public.4 In addition, other data suggest that the public was also concerned about the menace to “national unity” that immigration posed. These data come from the 1994 General Social Survey Multiculturalism Module and are presented in Table 4.1. Because the questions on the survey did not ask respondents to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants, the data reveal the American public’s belief that all immigration was having negative economic and cultural impacts. As the analysis of congressional debates will show, policymakers promoting immigration restriction appealed to a “public opinion” or “public mandate” to address the immigration problem in its many forms. Proposition 187 and Federal Policy Design The new House speaker, Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who presided over the dramatic Republican takeover of the House and Senate in the 1994 midterm elections, made careful note of the strategic importance of the immigration issue in the California election and drew his own lessons for the Republican agenda and future elections.5 When Lamar Smith (R-TX) introduced H.R. 2202 in 1995, the bill’s contents would reflect the influence Table 4.1 National Attitudes towards Immigrants, 1994 Very Somewhat Not Very Not at All Don’t Question* Likely Likely Likely Likely Know** Total % Will immigrants contribute to the national economy? 8.4 21.4 41.3 21.1 7.7 100 Will immigrants fuel unemployment? 53.9 31.1 7.9 2.3 4.8 100 Will immigrants affect national unity? 33.9 33.7 18.0 7.5 6.9 100 Source: General Social Survey, 1972–1996. N = 1,474 * The questions did not distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants. ** The few respondents who did not answer the question were coded as “Don’t Know.” Newton_pp067-136.indd 105 Newton_pp067-136.indd 105 5/3/08 3:53:47 PM 5/3/08 3:53:47 PM 106 Immigrants versus Taxpayers of 187. In...