10/27/2005
[Recently by Randall Burns: Editor At Christian Science Monitor Opposes Cure For Illegal Aliens]
VDARE.COM readers have seen repeatedly that there is a big gap between how political leaders vote on immigration — and what the public wants.
But how does this gap differ among ethnic various groups?
Recently, a reader forwarded me this article and another from the website MajorityRights.com using Americans for Better Immigration [ABI]’s grading system to demonstrate that Congressmen of different ethnicities voted significantly differently on immigration:
| White | Jews | Hispanics | Blacks | |
| A | 51 | |||
| B | 120 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| C | 61 | |||
| D | 59 | 9 | 1 | 13 |
| F | 48 | 14 | 21 | 26 |
| Total | 339 | 24 | 24 | 40 |
Grades from Americans for Better Immigration
Now, the some of the folks at MajorityRights were using this to suggest that "the problem" with US immigration policy is that specific ethnic groups were voting differently than whites (that is, non-Jewish whites) were.
And there is indeed clearly a substantial systematic difference in how Black, Jewish and Hispanic congressmen vote on immigration compared to how White congressmen vote.
Still, is this really a reflection of how Black, Jewish and Hispanic voters in fact feel?
Polls cited by the Center for Immigration Studies show there is a real systematic difference between elite and popular opinion on immigration. And poll data from FAIR breaks out this elite-popular division by ethnicity:
Answer to FAIR’s question: Do you want less immigration?
| Whites | Jews | Hispanics | Blacks | |
| People | 84% | 49% | 42% | 44% |
| Political* Leaders | 50% | 4% | 8% | 2% |
| Ratio | .59 | .08 | .19 | .045 |
*Grades B or A were taken as indicative of wanting less immigration-this may be an overly generous assumption.
What these polls suggest is that Black, Hispanic and Jewish congressmen are even more different from Black, Hispanic and Jewish voters than white congressmen are from white voters.
Who, then, are those congressmen representing — if not the voters?
Recently a colleague and I created a tool that measures the average Americans for Better Immigration voting record of the politicians to whom any specific individual donates — using the records available at open secrets.org.
My colleague is an H-1b casualty who needed help with his rent that month. The project cost a tiny fraction what any H-1b intensive shop would have charged.
One of the first things we used this tool for was to see how the congressional recipients of donations from the 20 richest Americans in 2001 voted on immigration issues.
|
Rank |
Name |
Net worth (millons) |
Age |
ABI grade of donation Recipients |
|
1 |
54,000 |
45 |
47.77 |
|
|
2 |
33,200 |
71 |
31 |
|
|
3 |
28,200 |
48 |
28.25 |
|
|
4 |
21,900 |
57 |
38 |
|
|
5 |
17,500 |
52 |
62 |
|
|
5 |
17,500 |
82 |
66.91 |
|
|
5 |
17,500 |
53 |
66.81 |
|
|
5 |
17,500 |
55 |
77.61 |
|
|
9 |
17,500 |
57 |
62.1 |
|
|
10 |
15,100 |
45 |
42.19 |
|
|
11 |
11,300 |
78 |
33.86 |
|
|
11 |
11,300 |
81 |
40.09 |
|
|
13 |
10,600 |
87 |
27.68 |
|
|
14 |
10,100 |
78 |
28.43 |
|
|
15 |
9,800 |
36 |
63.2 |
|
|
16 |
9,600 |
61 |
60 |
|
|
17 |
9,100 |
39 |
66.3 |
|
|
18 |
9,000 |
70 |
31 |
|
|
18 |
9,000 |
62 |
31 |
|
|
20 |
Mars, John Franklyn |
9,000 |
65 |
— |
|
21 |
7,500 |
70 |
44 |
|
|
22 |
7,100 |
48 |
40.9 |
|
|
23 |
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