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By Rafael Lorente
and Ruth Morris Washington Bureau
Posted March 5 2005
WASHINGTON · Two-thirds of likely voters in Florida would oppose a plan to allow some undocumented immigrants to live and work legally in the United States, according to a new poll conducted for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Florida Times-Union.
That puts them at odds with President Bush, who has advocated a guest-worker program that would allow at least some undocumented immigrants the right to live and work legally in the United States.
The survey also found that likely voters oppose -- by more than a 3-to-1 margin -- letting states issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants, aligning them with many Republicans in Congress who are pushing for a law that would prevent undocumented immigrants from using licenses for identification purposes.
The poll, conducted last week by Maryland-based Research 2000, surveyed 600 likely voters in Florida. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The poll found that fewer than four in 10 likely voters in the state think immigration helps the United States.
"Sometimes [immigration] helps, sometimes it hurts," said Joyce Adams, a Goodwill employee from Riviera Beach who responded to the survey. "Depends on the people."
Adams said she worries about jobs being lost to immigrants, and she is concerned about security in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, said the poll results may reflect more about Floridians' concerns about national security than an anti-immigrant sentiment.
"I don't think it's so much immigration bashing as it is concerns about security and safety, since Florida is considered to be more vulnerable to terrorism than many other states," MacManus said.
MacManus noted Floridians are especially mindful of the anthrax death that occurred at the American Media Inc. building in Boca Raton in 2001 and that a number of the 9-11 hijackers lived and trained in Florida before mounting the attacks on New York and Washington.
In the Sun-Sentinel poll, Hispanics, who made up 15 percent of the respondents, were no more supportive of pro-immigration changes than other groups polled. Only two in 10 Hispanics favored a law allowing undocumented immigrants to work legally in the country. Only two in 10 favored issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. And only 38 percent of Florida's Hispanics who are likely voters said they thought immigration helped the United States.
Jeff Garcia, a political consultant who has worked for Democratic candidates in Florida, said it was no surprise to see the poll's Hispanic respondents falling in line with mainstream views since the survey was limited to likely voters. At least half of registered Hispanic voters in the state are Cuban -- a group that tends to hold views more in line with established immigrants, or non-immigrants, than with more recent immigrants.
He said Hispanics who vote are likely to oppose guest worker programs "strictly out of self-preservation. Do you want more laborers fighting for the same jobs?" he asked.
The attitudes of Floridians in general seemed to track with poll results nationally, although responses vary depending on who was polled and where in the country they were surveyed.
In a California Field Poll released this week, 68 percent of registered voters in that state opposed a plan to allow undocumented immigrants the right to get a driver's license.
Among all Californians, not just those registered to vote, 62 percent opposed such a plan. Among all Hispanics, the response was the opposite, with 64 percent in favor of giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.
In a national poll by Westhill Partners for the National Journal's Hotline, 55 percent opposed a program allowing illegal immigrants to live and work legally in the United States. But 57 percent of respondents thought immigration was good for the United States.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, which advocates strict immigration control, said he is not surprised by the poll findings because Americans tend to oppose immigration. Krikorian said it is business leaders and others he calls elites that support immigration.
"It's the public that is concerned about immigration," he said. "It's the elite among Republicans and Democrats who like immigration."
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