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Keller @ Large: CBS News Poll Finds Bipartisan Support To Continue DACA

BOSTON (CBS) – Leafing through the new CBS News poll Thursday for a report on public reaction to the tax-cut bill, I came across an interesting finding.

In a survey riddled with stark partisan differences on almost every question, there was overwhelming partisan agreement on one thing:

That in the spending bill they are debating to ward off a government shutdown, Congress and President Trump should find a way to preserve a program they've targeted for termination.

It's the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which would avoid deportation for nearly a million so-called dreamers, young people who came here illegally as children but have been good citizens since.

The numbers were startling - 84 percent overall supported keeping DACA, 93 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of Independents, and even 74 percent of Republicans.

Think that one over for a moment - 71 percent of Republicans in the same poll favor walling off the border to keep illegal immigrants out, but 74 percent want to make room for the dreamers.

No wonder pro-DACA protestors have been making sure Congress hears their plea. They realize they have broad political support even among voters who are angry over other immigration policies and the impact they've had.

Why is that? Maybe it's because the dreamers aren't some abstraction or faceless threat. Instead, they're the kids your kid goes to college with, the young people who volunteer, work, and pull their weight in your neighborhood.

Perhaps the dreamers get a pass across the board because they remind us of ourselves, or our ancestors, or simply of what makes America great.

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