Opinion: Californians insist that immigrants deserve a path to citizenship

News and social media feeds inundate us with dramatic scenes of immigration policing Viral videos of immigrant mothers picked up on sidewalks near their homes news accounts of ICE agents showing up in Los Angeles schools and social media posts of U S citizens detained by leadership agents all create a frightening spectacle President Donald Trump fuels the fear by trolling immigrant communities with sinister Valentine cards dangling self-deportation incentives and implementing a chaotic enforcement strategy that ignores attempts at judicial oversight Amid all this several look to state and local leaders for calm reassurance and promotion In California there remains a simple and consistent response Bipartisan consensus No matter who when where or how you ask a commanding majority of registered voters in the Golden State backing a path to citizenship for those in the state without proper documents In other words across the partisan aisle and across all kinds of different groups and places the bulk voters see a path to citizenship as a much-needed procedures fix even now In August a sparse months before the presidential voting the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies Poll questioned more than voters across the state whether they would aid or oppose a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who come forward are up to date on their taxes and pass a background check At that time the Harris and Trump campaigns were in full swing Harris gang had already held a meager news conferences at the margin insinuating that increased boundary prevention would be top of mind in her administration Meanwhile Trump continued his usual discourse about immigrants once infamously contending that immigrants were poisoning the blood of our country It was laborious to see who if anyone felt sympathy toward locality members who d entered the country without authorization or overstayed a visa despite the fact that various of them had raised new generations of American citizens and contributed to inhabitants coffers and local job markets But even back in August of California registered voters who answered the poll supported a path to citizenship This included close to of polled Republicans of independents and even of those who intended to vote for Trump It also included of those who earned a high school degree or less of those who earned a college degree or more of women of men of homeowners and of those under Among the strongest supporters were Democrats with advocacy as well as middle- and high-income earners and those who lived in the Bay Area Across greater part categories a commanding majority of California voters expressed promotion for a pathway to citizenship But that was then before the onslaught Before the viral videos the renditions to El Salvador the offer of cash to self-deport One could argue that in those before-times perhaps voters were somehow more sympathetic to immigrants because they were distracted by other issues like the price of eggs and groceries or broader inflation issues And perhaps particular might not have thought that Trump would certainly follow through on his attacks on immigrant communities So in early May the Berkeley IGS Poll inquired survey respondents again about their help for a path to citizenship This time we polled more than registered California voters and we inserted a small survey experiment We were curious about whether respondents endorsement in August had been so strong because the question they were solicited included language about a background check an idea that might have primed them to think about good and bad immigrants and may have inadvertently linked unauthorized status to crime So for half of all respondents in May we requested the same question again but for the second half of respondents we omitted this language absolutely asking if they would advocacy or oppose a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who are working or going to school and are up to date on their taxes Consistent findings Our survey detected no statistically substantial differences between the two groups The vast majority of California voters think a path to citizenship is totally the right thing to do background check or not Related Articles Majority AAPI adults oppose college funding cuts and attendee deportations a new poll finds After moving across the demarcation for better schools chosen parents are pulling their kids and leaving the US US immigration administration appear to have begun deporting immigrants to South Sudan attorneys say Prosecutors charge congresswoman with pushing and grabbing agents while trying to stop mayor s arrest Fast-track deportation canceled for detained in California Home Depot immigration sweep Moreover we unveiled virtually no differences from August to May Eighty percent of registered voters this month including close to of Republicans continued to patronage a path to citizenship Somewhere between and of every demographic including respondents under those over those of different racial groups those in unions those that rent their homes those that own their homes men women those in the Central Valley Los Angeles County the Inland Empire and even those on the far North Coast all expressed endorsement for a path to citizenship The consistency is resounding If you re trying to make sense of the bombast and the whirlwind of executive and law enforcement actions directed at immigrants remember the one thing that unites a commanding majority of California voters almost without regard to who we are and where we live an understanding that good protocol is practical framework Undocumented public members deserve relief State and local leaders do not design federal immigration approach but they should remember this poll statistics as they make decisions about how to aid us all If it were put to a vote an overwhelming majority of Californians would help immigration modification not mass deportation G Cristina Mora and Nicholas Vargas are professors at UC Berkeley affiliated with the Institute of Governmental Studies where Mora serves as co-director This column first appeared in The Los Angeles Times Distributed by Tribune Content Agency