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Home  News Immigration Reform Poll: American feelings on illegal immigration mixed
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Poll: American feelings on illegal immigration mixed |
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| | WASHINGTON: More than two-thirds of Americans support enabling illegal immigrants to become citizens even as nearly the same percentage favor a crackdown on businesses that employ such immigrants, according to a national poll released Tuesday. The poll, done by Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, contrasts with a poll the school conducted in March that showed most Americans opposed to making it easier for illegal immigrants to become citizens. Its release comes two weeks after a midterm election that brought the issue to the forefront in many campaigns. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said that a guest-worker program for those here illegally should offer such immigrants the ability to work toward citizenship over several years. Just over a quarter (27 percent) opposed the idea. “There has been a generalized hostility toward illegal immigrants,” said Maurice Carroll, director of Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “With the campaign season over, maybe people are willing to take a more judicious look at everything.” At the same time, the poll shows that Americans favor curbing employment of illegal immigrants and support municipalities’ efforts to crack down on businesses that employ illegal immigrants. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) said they supported fining businesses that employ illegal immigrants. Hazleton, Pa., sparked a national trend after the city council passed a law in July cracking down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants and landlords that rent to them. With an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in America—between 125,000 and 175,000 are thought to live in Pennsylvania, according to the Pew Hispanic Center—the issue has become a hotly debated matter in Congress. President Bush has endorsed a Senate-approved plan to create a guest-worker program for illegal immigrants that would enable many to eventually become citizens, provided they pay back taxes, learn English and have no serious criminal records. The House has rejected the plan, having passed an entirely different bill that focuses on beefing up border security and criminalizing those here illegally. The Quinnipiac poll also suggests that Americans are optimistic—albeit by a small margin—that Congress and the President can come to an agreement over the issue. Nearly half (48 percent) of the poll’s 1,623 respondents said they thought Bush and Democrats in Congress will work together on immigration reform, while 44 percent expressed skepticism. Bush, though, has had more trouble persuading members of his own party to follow his plan for a guest-worker program. Whether the Democrats have a large enough majority in both houses to carry the Pesident’s plan remains to be seen. The poll, conducted November 13 through Sunday with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points, also found little variation among responses based on political affiliation and gender. “The differences are not as partisan as people think they are,” said Gabriel Escobar, associate director of publications at the Pew Hispanic Center, which studies illegal immigration and attitudes toward immigrants. Escobar said Pew’s research has shown that opinions on illegal immigration vary more by income level, education and race.
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