Poll: Immigration Issue Fades as Priority Among Latinos

By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 15, 2009; 2:34 PM

The immigration issue has receded in importance to Latinos amid their mounting alarm over the economy, according to a nationwide poll released today by the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center.

Only 31 percent of Latinos surveyed cited immigration as an "extremely important" priority for the incoming Obama administration, ranking the issue behind not only the economy but also education, health care, national security and the environment.

By contrast, 38 percent of Hispanics judged immigration extremely important in a similar poll taken in December 2007, several months after an unsuccessful proposal to overhaul the nation's immigration system and offer illegal immigrants a path to citizenship sparked rancorous debate in Congress.

Even then immigration was ranked only fifth on a list of six possible priorities for Latinos, who make up 15 percent of the population and include both new arrivals and people whose roots in the United States stretch back generations. What has changed most is Latinos' focus on the economy: Fifty-seven percent now cite it as "extremely important" compared to 43 percent in the December 2007 poll.

Similarly, according to the current poll, 31 percent of Latino respondents who voted in the presidential election said the economy was the issue that mattered most to their decision. Only 6 percent cited immigration, about half the share that cited "candidates' attributes" or "a general desire for change."

The poll's findings echo trends in the general population. For instance while 56 percent of registered voters identified immigration as a very important issue in an October 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center, the share dropped to 49 percent by late 2008.

Still, Mark Hugo Lopez, co-author of the survey released today, cautioned that the current results may reflect Latinos' increasing concern with the economy more than mounting apathy over immigration. He noted that 75 percent of Hispanics reported that immigration should be at least a "very important" priority for President-elect Barack Obama, and 88 percent cited it as at least "important."

Lopez also said the current poll did not necessarily disprove the impression of many analysts that the Republican Party's opposition to the legalization plan contributed to Obama's two-to-one victory over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) among Hispanics. Although previous polling indicated that registered Latino voters had more confidence in Democrats' ability to manage the economy, a September poll by the Pew Hispanic Center also found that 55 percent of Latino registered voters believed Democrats had more concern for Hispanics, compared to 6 percent who cited Republicans.

"We don't have any evidence to be able to tease out the independent effect of immigration [on the election's outcome]," said Lopez. "There are several possible scenarios there and I don't think our survey allows us to tease them out."

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