Obama Will Have to Fight His Own Party to Ease Deportations

Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times highlights some interesting political stats in an immigration study Pew released last week: 

[T]he gap between the ends of the Democratic coalition on favoring stricter enforcement and on legalization is twice as large as the gap between hard-line Republicans and their more libertarian-leaning cohorts.

[W]hile 94 percent of self-identified liberals wanted a path to citizenship, just 61 percent of so-called "hard-pressed" Democrats did. That is about twice the gap between conservatives and libertarians in the GOP's coalition. On enforcement, the gap was just as stark: Just 55 percent of liberals wanted to continue the crackdown, while 88 percent of hard-pressed Democrats did, compared with a 7 point gap between main street Republicans and conservatives on the GOP's side.

Also interesting: The source of respondents' anxiety over illegal immigration is not, as so many close-the-border types claim, immigrant crime (which has fallen off in border states): 

Asked to choose among four options, 40% of the public say their biggest concern about illegal immigration is the burden it places on government services. About a quarter (27%) say their biggest concern is the impact on jobs, while fewer cite the impact of illegal immigration on crime (9%) and America's customs and its way of life (6%).

Americans are scared that immigrants will make our crappy entitlement programs worse. That's a great argument for entitlement reform.