Deceptive FWD US 2014 immigration poll (Mark Zuckerberg, Kellyanne Conway, Whit Ayres)

In June 2014, FWD US - a group Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and others started to push a high immigration agenda - released "Poll By 10 Prominent GOP Pollsters Shows Americans Overwhelmingly Support Action On Immigration" [1].

Like other polls listed at immigration poll, their poll asked incomplete or deceptive questions and got results that can't be trusted. The questions were designed to fool people, and the results were designed to fool people.

Those involved with the poll were:

American Viewpoint's Linda DiVall and Randy Gutermuth; Basswood Research's Jon Lerner; GS Strategy Group's Greg Strimple and Brooks Kochvar; Moore Information's Hans Kaiser; North Star Opinion Research's Whit Ayres, Jon McHenry and Dan Judy; The Polling Company's Kellyanne Conway; Public Opinion Strategies' Neil Newhouse; The Tarrance Group's Brian Tringali and BJ Martino; The Winston Group's David Winston and Myra Miller; and WPA Opinion Research's Chris Perkins.

Kellyanne Conway is, at least as of post time, Donald Trump's new campaign manager. Whit Ayres has also been discussed here before.

Here are a few of the questions that were asked:

The proposal provides a pathway for legal status for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., provided they pass a criminal background check, pay a fine and taxes owed, learn English and wait at least thirteen years until they can become a citizen.

As discussed on the immigration terminology page, there's no such thing as an "undocumented immigrant". Further, some people might think there's a difference between an "undocumented immigrant" and other terms they've heard such as illegal alien. The latter is the legally correct term, and wouldn't leave any doubt about who's being discussed. The rest of that question falls in the "how dumb do you think I am?" category. It would take many years to do FBI quality background checks on that many people. That means the background checks would be a slapdash affair, and, given that most of those involved are from countries that don't keep records and where fraud is rife, their pasts couldn't be adequately checked. If those covered by the plan couldn't pay their fines, rest assured that Democratic Party leaders would let them pay a reduced amount or similar. Claims that illegal aliens are going to learn English have been weakened even before bills have gone through Congress and could just be promising to enroll in classes at some point in the future. The "thirteen years" would be reduced by Dem leaders: they aren't going to wait that long to take advantage of all their newfound power. In brief, the FWD US question was asking people if they supported something that would never happen as described. That question also doesn't go into all the other downsides of comprehensive immigration reform; see the link for those.

This proposal creates a guest-worker program to address labor shortages in specific industries like agriculture and construction, and allowing more high-skilled immigrants into the country in the technology, science and engineering fields.

To businesses that want guest workers, the "labor shortage" is that there isn't enough labor at their price. If they offered more, they'd find plenty of labor. As is done now, they'd cook the books as much as possible to bring in as much cheap foreign labor as possible. That question doesn't reveal all the other downsides of "guests"; see the last link and H1B for those. Since many of our "guests" would end up staying, see skilled immigration for even more.

This proposal allows those undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children through no fault of their own to earn their citizenship if they received a high school degree and attended college or served in the military.

That question asks about the DREAM Act, an anti-American bill that, among other things, would let illegal aliens deprive some U.S. citizens of college educations. See the link for all the other things that question didn't reveal.

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[1] fwd . us/poll_voters_support_immigration_reform, poll cached in Combined_Immigration_Presentation_.pdf