Ditch politics in immigration reform

New surveys say immigrants want legal residency more than citizenship, maybe this much can be agreed on.    - - Donna Poisl

By Esther J. Cepeda / Syndicated Columnist

CHICAGO – Immigration reform is not dead – it’s just waiting for lawmakers to drop the politics, strike a compromise and get it done.

The Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project seems to back up the idea that a pathway for achieving citizenship is not a make-or-break provision to getting an immigration reform deal. Insisting on citizenship only serves to keep 11.7 million people in a state of terrifying limbo for the sake of appeasing those who care only about scoring points in a future election.

Based on two surveys fielded multilingually in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Pew found that 55 percent of Hispanics say that being able to live and work in the United States legally without the threat of deportation is more important for unauthorized immigrants than a pathway to citizenship, which garnered 35 percent support.
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