I've been with NumbersUSA for all of our 14 years. One of my jobs is to send regular emails summarizing the latest on our political struggle, while also asking members to donate.

(Thanks for reading my letters and helping with the funding. This entire website, including our faxing capability and Congressional gradecards, is supported by small donations from you members.)

I write these letters to members, and thousands of you write me back. One thing I've noticed: Giving automatic U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants and tourists, the so-called "birthright citizenship," seems to mortify members more than any other issue. It just seems unjust.

Until last week, however, we had never actually surveyed our members to confirm my impression. Last Wednesday, I put together a survey on birthright citizenship.

We published a link to the survey on this website and emailed to a random sampling of our members. Within a couple of hours, thousands had completed the poll. Results are in and conclusive. 99.7 percent of members oppose birthright citizenship!

On Thursday I emailed most of you the background on the birthright citizenship issue and my analysis of the poll answers, but I know many of you just want the unedited results. Here they are below. One note: my figure 99.7% opposed comes from question #4, adding the first three answers.

Birthright Citizenship Survey Results

1. Are you familiar with the term "birthright citizenship?"

a) Yes, it refers to automatic citizenship being granted to children of illegal aliens who are born here.    97.6%
b) This survey helped me understand what birthright citizenship means.   2.1%
c) No, I'm not yet clear what this term means.   0.3%

2. Would you support a simple bill in Congress to end the practice of birthright citizenship for illegal aliens and tourists?

a) Yes, I absolutely support ending birthright citizenship by Congressional legislation.      98.9%
b) Not sure about it.      0.6%
c) No, I don't think we should change birthright citizenship.      0.4%

3. Some people claim that ending the practice of birthright citizenship would require some alteration of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. If federal courts eventually decided this step is necessary to end birthright citizenship, would you support altering the 14th Amendment for this purpose?

a) Yes, absolutely support altering the 14th Amendment for this purpose.   90.0%
b) Not sure about it.      6.8%
c) No, would not want to alter the 14th Amendment. 3.2%

4. How important is it to you personally to end the practice of granting automatic U.S. citizenship to babies born to illegal aliens
and tourists?

a) Extremely important--one of my top immigration goals.   94.0%
b) Somewhat important.     5.4%
c) I oppose birthright citizenship, but it's not worth the trouble of
changing.       0.3%
d) Not important--I don't support changing birthright citizenship. 0.2%

5. What steps are you willing to take to end birthright citizenship?
a) None--I will not take action.   2.7%
b) I will send NumbersUSA faxes to Congress.       51.0%
c) I will send the faxes plus make some phone calls as necessary.  24.8%
d) I will do whatever it takes.    21.6%

Jim Robb is V.P, Operations, of NumbersUSA.

Tags:  

Public Opinion

Illegal Immigration

Birthright Citizenship

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