Thread: Poll: 51% of public (Americans) support Arizona law

Surprisingly announced on MSNBC's "Morning Joe", along with a slightly more balanced discussion of the issue for which I will post a link as it becomes available:


Poll: 51% of public supports Arizona immigration law


USA Today
Apr 29, 2010


A new Gallup Poll shows that more than three-quarters of Americans are aware of Arizona's new immigration law and that 51% of them support its tough measures and 39% are opposed.

Nearly a quarter (22%) of the 1,013 adults surveyed said they did not know about the law.

Breaking the results down along party lines, 62% of Republicans favor the law, compared with 27% of Democrats and 37% of self-declared independents.

The legislation, signed into law Friday by Gov. Jan Brewer, makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally and directs Arizona law enforcement to question and detain people suspected of being in the country illegally.

The telephone survey was conducted Tuesday and Wednesday and has a margin of error of +/-4 percentage points.

See the full results here:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/127598/Ameri ... n-Law.aspx


http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... ion-law-/1

More Americans Favor Than Oppose Arizona Immigration Law
Among those who have heard of law, 51% favor and 39% oppose it


by Jeffrey M. Jones
USA Today
April 29, 2010


PRINCETON, NJ -- More than three-quarters of Americans have heard about the state of Arizona's new immigration law, and of these, 51% say they favor it and 39% oppose it.



These results are based on a new Gallup poll conducted April 27-28, in the days after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's signing the bill into law. The law makes it a state crime for illegal immigrants to be in the country, and allows Arizona law enforcement officials to detain those suspected of being in the country illegally unless they can prove otherwise. The law has sparked protests in Arizona and other parts of the U.S., and calls for economic boycotts of the state.

Nationally, 62% of Republicans support the law (including 75% of Republicans who have heard about it). Democrats are more likely to oppose (45%) than favor (27%) the law, and a majority of Democrats familiar with the law (56%) oppose it. Independents are somewhat more likely to favor (37%) than oppose (29%) the law, with half of those who have heard about it in favor.



A total of 78% of Americans say they have heard or read something about the law, with more than half reporting a great deal (24%) or fair amount (34%) of exposure. These figures are similar by party group.



Regardless of their level of self-reported familiarity with the Arizona law, Americans are generally more supportive of than opposed to it. Note that the poll did not attempt to measure actual knowledge about the law or describe the various provisions of the law to respondents.



Bottom Line

Most Americans have heard about Arizona's tough new immigration law, and they generally support it. The law was passed partly in response to a lack of federal action on the issue. Since the Arizona bill became law, congressional Democrats have considered taking up the issue in the coming weeks, though this initial read on public opinion toward the Arizona law suggests Americans may not necessarily back an attempt to supersede or otherwise undermine it.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,013 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted April 27-28, 2010. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones (for respondents with a landline telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell phone only).

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/127598/Ameri ... n-Law.aspx[/img]

Gallup is lying and we need to remember this. This is the lowest of all polls.

Zogby shows 81% of Americans support local police enforcing immigration laws.

Rasmussen shows 70% of Arizonans and 60% of Americans support SB 1070 specifically.

And there is another national poll around here somewhere showing 78% national support for SB 1070.

W

The only difference is that this Gallup poll was conducted two days ago while the Zogby poll was conducted in June 2007, as far as I know, when Congress twice attempted to pass immigration reform. But I could not find the specific reference indicating that 81% of Americans support local police enforcing immigration laws, so if someone knows of one, please provide the link. Also, I could not find the link to the actual Rasmussen poll stating that 60% of Americans support SB 1070, so I would appreciate someone providing that link as well.

At any rate, in the current political climate, I'm surprised that MSNBC even bothered to announce the results since it directly contradicts their constant barrage of biased rhetoric on immigration.

For everyone's info:

UPI/Zogby Poll: Government Mishandling Immigration
Released: June 20, 2007:

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.cfm?ID=1328