Immigration Reform, Deportations Crucial To DREAMers’ Support Of Democrats

A study published last week of over 1,400 Dreamers, or young undocumented immigrants brought to the US illegally by their parents as children, finds that this demographic -- largely assumed to be the province of the Democratic Party -- might be less loyal to Democrats than you might think. And even though this group can’t vote, as the New York Times noted last week, those surveyed indicated high levels of political participation -- 40 percent said they’d attended a rally in the past year, and almost half helped organize voters in 2012 -- pointing to political weight beyond their numbers as a potential voting bloc.

While half of the survey’s respondents self-identified as Democrats, 45 percent identified as Independents or hit the “other” box. The study’s authors say that ought to be encouraging for Republicans. Tom Wong, a professor of political science at UC- San Diego who led the study, told KPBS that “this emerging constituency is more up for grabs politically than previously thought.” But the degree to which this demographic would pull weight for Republicans depends heavily on their support for immigration reform.

Some 68 percent of respondents said that as long as immigration reform remains stalled, they could not “support the Republican Party or its candidates,” compared to 41 percent who said they agreed or strongly agreed with the same statement applied to the Democratic Party. Action on the issue of deportations, however, fell more heavily on the shoulders of Democrats, with 71 percent saying they “agreed” or “strongly agreed” with the statement, “whether I support Democratic Party in the future depends on whether they work to address the issue of the separation of families because of deportation.”