The Rasmussen Reports item mentioned by Brenda, below, about Americans believing that immigration enforcement would reduce poverty in America, divides up the responses in various categories:

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Republicans and 58% of adults not affiliated with either political party feel there would be less poverty if immigration laws were enforced, a view shared by just 48% of Democrats.61% Say Enforcing Immigration Laws Would Cut Poverty [April 10, 2011].

The crosstabs [Subscriber link] show that 64 percent of whites and 50 percent of blacks say "Yes" when asked "if immigration laws were enforced, there would be less poverty in America?" That's a divide, but it's nothing like the divide on party lines and general political philosophies between white and black voters, 95 percent of whom voted for Obama.

It's a lot smaller, in fact, than the divide between ordinary Americans and the political class. See Poll Exposes Elite-Public Clash On Immigration By Sam Francis, from 2002, or Immigration And The States: The Slave Power Strikes Back, by William Houston, five days ago.

But the people who believe that immigration increases poverty are right.

Immigration increases poverty in two ways

• It makes Americans poorer.
• It imports poor people.

The people who are poorer are low-level workers. In fact, (American) women and minorities are "hardest hit."

The imported poor people are frequently really poor, and import habits of poverty. Immigration enforcement would help a lot.