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Talking About Rewarding Work by
Legalizing Hard-Working, Taxpaying Immigrants

A coalition of organizations is leading a campaign to reform U.S. immigration laws in order to make it easier for hard-working, taxpaying immigrants to gain legal status.  The following are lessons learned from polling and focus groups among the voting public that SEIU commissioned to learn more about how to talk about our goals.

1. We’re for legalization. This word works as well as the word “amnesty” among immigrants, but our opponents use the word “amnesty” because they know it loses us support among non-immigrants.  So use legalization with all audiences.
2. We’re for legalization of “immigrants who work hard, pay taxes, and want to become American citizens.” This helps us counter non-immigrants’ fears that we favor wholesale legalization for immigrants who will be on welfare, won’t pay taxes, won’t learn English, and will primarily be loyal to their native country.
3. When we speak to non-immigrants especially, we need to emphasize that we are for legalization of immigrants "living in the U.S." who work hard, pay taxes, and want to become American citizens.  Most non-immigrants need to be reassured that there will be some criteria for legalization – and not just unlimited immigration.

Some reasons that most voters are likely to support to make it easier for some immigrants to gain legal status include the following:

• Immigrants who work hard, pay taxes, and want to become American citizens should be able to work for the American Dream for themselves and their children.
• It’s not fair that many immigrants who work hard, pay taxes, and want to become American citizens have been held in bureaucratic limbo for years – unable to get the government to resolve their legal status.
• Employers can exploit immigrant workers who don’t have legal rights and fear deportation – and that drives down pay and benefit standards for all workers.