Bay Area support for DACA strong

Poll: Bipartisan support for Dreamers, not as much for undocumented immigrants

As Congress prepares to vote this week on a measure that could decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants in the country, bipartisan support in the immigrant-rich Bay Area is strong for the controversial DACA program, a new poll shows.

But Bay Area voters aren’t as quick to back the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, who over the past several months have become targets of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies.

Eighty-five percent of participants said they’d support a pathway to citizenship for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — often known as “Dreamers” — according to a poll conducted for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the Bay Area News Group.

Meanwhile, 31 percent said undocumented immigrants have a negative impact on the Bay Area economy, while only 10 percent said the same of DACA recipients. About 36 percent said undocumented immigrants have a negative impact on quality of life in the Bay Area, compared with just 13 percent for Dreamers.

The discrepancy tells the tale of two narratives: Though both groups immigrated to the U.S. illegally, Americans largely view Dream-

ers much more favorably because they were brought to the country as children, are generally more educated and likely more assimilated to life in the U.S. By contrast, the Trump administration’s war against undocumented immigrants has contributed to the notion that they aren’t as valuable to the economy, experts said.

“Voters draw a distinction between those who choose to come here on their own volition without documentation versus children who are brought here with no choice of their own,” said David Metz, president of Oakland-based FM3 Research, which conducted the poll. Metz said the results show “enormous sympathy” for Dreamers.

“They’re aware that Dreamers are children who have grown up in the U.S., have known no other country, have deep roots in the community … and are really a part of the fabric of Silicon Valley.”

California is home to about 200,000 DACA recipients. And the overwhelming support for Dreamers is part of an ongoing trend that extends well beyond the liberal and diverse Bay Area: Polls have shown for months that a significant majority of Americans want Congress to pass legislation to protect Dreamers and most favor a path to citizenship.

In the Bay Area poll, the divide was most visible across party lines. While a large majority of Democrats (93 percent) and independents (87 percent) support a path to citizenship, only 53 percent of Republicans did. And only 35 percent of Republicans said Dreamers have a positive impact on the Bay Area’s quality of life compared with 81 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of independents.

Joanne Knapp, 79, of Atherton, was among the two-thirds of survey participants who said they “strongly support” a path to citizenship for Dreamers.

“These kids have been here — they should be allowed to stay,” she said. “They have lives and careers. They’re important to the economy.”

Knapp, a Democrat, said the fact that the White House hasn’t found a resolution to keep Dreamers in the U.S. is “pure nastiness on Trump’s part.”

Survey participant Jennifer Bousquet, 46, of Brentwood, said she “somewhat supports” a proposal to allow Dreamers to remain in the U.S., so long as they’re contributing to the economy and on a path to citizenship.

“These poor kids that were brought in, it’s not their fault that they were brought into this country illegally,” said Bousquet, who considers herself a political independent. “We really shouldn’t be holding that against the children. But on the other hand, the parents did bring the children here illegally and didn’t follow the proper guidelines.”

While Dreamers have both a positive and negative effect on life in the Bay Area, according to Bousquet, undocumented immigrants have a “very negative” effect overall, she said.

“Undocumented immigrants are taking jobs from U.S. citizens,” she said. “Somehow they’re getting health care, somehow they’re getting aid, somehow they’re getting money from a company that’s paying them under the table.”

Even as the Trump administration tightens its grip on the waves of undocumented immigrants flowing into the U.S. — announcing this month that immigrants fleeing domestic violence will no longer qualify for asylum — lawmakers fight to keep DACA alive.

After GOP immigration moderates fell short of garnering enough support to force a DACA vote, House Speaker Paul Ryan said his chamber would vote on two immigration policies this week.

The House is expected to vote this week on a bill pushed by conservatives that may not have enough support to pass, and a compromise measure that includes key proposals supported by the president. The White House has indicated Trump would sign either of those.

Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which sponsored the poll, said he was proud to see the overwhelming support for DACA recipients — a sign they’re an intricate part of life in the Bay Area, he said.

“To me that underscores that respondents don’t just tolerate Dreamers — they celebrate Dreamers,” he said. “When nearly 7 out of 10 say they’re good for their quality of life, that tells me that they’re welcome in our community.”

The poll of 1,834 registered voters in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties was conducted by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz and Associates for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Bay Area News Group. The poll, conducted from May 5-14, has a margin of error of +/2.3 percentage points.