Thread: 75% Support Penalties Against Employers Who Hire Illegals

75% Support Tough Penalties Against Employers Who Hire Illegal Immigrants

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

More voters continue to favor tougher laws against employers who hire illegal immigrants than against landlords who rent to them. But support for strong sanctions against both employers and landlords are at record highs.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that three-out-of-four Likely U.S. Voters (75%) now favor strict government sanctions on those who hire illegal immigrants. Only 16% oppose such sanctions. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Fifty-nine percent (59%) also support strict sanctions on landlords who rent or sell property to illegals. Twenty-four percent (24%) are opposed to tough laws against these landlords, but 17% more are undecided.

Data released this year showed that 65% of voters see employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants are a bigger problem than illegal immigrants who are seeking a job. Sixty-one percent (61%) favor shutting down companies that knowingly and repeatedly hire illegal immigrants.

Nearly two-out-of-three voters (65%) believe that if a police officer pulls someone over for a traffic violation, he or she should automatically check to see if that person is in the country legally. Twenty-six percent (26%) oppose those automatic checks.

The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 14-15, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Voters still believe strongly, as they have for years, that gaining control of the border is more important than legalizing the status of illegal immigrants already living in America when it comes to immigration reform policy.

Support for employer and landlord sanctions is up several points from last month but is consistent with the attitudes of most voters since September 2006. Support for automatic police checks of immigration status is up from 59% a month ago but still short of an all-time high of 73% in November 2007.

Most Democrats agree with the majority of Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party when it comes to tough penalties against those who employ illegal immigrants. But Democrats are much less supportive than Republicans and unaffiliated voters when it comes to tough sanctions on landlords who rent or sell to illegals and automatic police immigration checks.

Seventy-five percent (75%) of Mainstream voters favor the police checking immigration status during traffic stops. A plurality (47%) of the Political Class opposes such a requirement.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of voters think a state should have the right to enforce immigration laws if it believes the federal government is not enforcing them. Most also believe that policies of the federal government encourage illegal immigration.

www.rasmussenreports.com

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-6428--0-0.html