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Respondents to poll on immigration support increasing enforcement
Last Update: 01/19/2007 12:47:41 PM
By: Todd Dukart


Respondents to the final informal web poll in KOBTV.com’s At Issue support increasing enforcement of existing immigration laws.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they supported increased enforcement.

“Anything and everything that will stop the invasion and remove those in the USA illegally is necessary,” wrote one respondent.

Just over half supported President Bush’s plan to build a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border.

About a third of respondents supported allowing Mexican nationals to enter the U.S. with guest worker visas that would have to be renewed.

Like web polls often do, this poll seems to have attracted mostly people with strong opinions about immigration.

“Illegal is illegal,” at least two separate respondents wrote.

Another respondent wrote, “Legalize all non-criminal immigrants immediately.”

Nine out of ten respondents to the poll considered immigration a somewhat important or very important issue for the New Mexico Legislature and for Congress, a number much higher than previous, more formal polls.

For example, in 2004, just seven out of ten respondents to an NPR poll conducted by telephone considered immigration somewhat or very important. That poll was conducted with the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.