60% in Florida Favor Arizona-Like Immigration Law in Their State
Saturday, August 14, 2010

Most voters in Florida support an immigration law like the one recently passed in Arizona in their state.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 60% of Likely Voters in the state favor a similar immigration law in Florida, which is in line with national findings. Twenty-seven percent oppose such a law, and 13% are not sure one way or the other.

The percentage of supporters has held fairly steady since last month, when 62% supported an Arizona-like immigration law. Platinum Members can see state-by-state results from across the country. Only four states have support below 50% and three top 70%.

That same month, 60% of Florida voters also opposed the U.S. Justice Department’s challenge of Arizona’s immigration law.

This statewide telephone survey of 750 Likely Voters in Florida was conducted on August 9, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/-4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

The majority of Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major political party support an immigration law in Florida, while Democrats are more divided.

A majority of white voters favor the law, while a majority of voters of other ethnicities oppose it. African-American voters are more evenly divided on the issue.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) in Florida believe that a child born in the United States to an illegal immigrant should not automatically become a citizen of the United States. Twenty-nine percent (29%) disagree and think such a child should automatically become a citizen. Another 13% of voters are not sure.

Most voters (54%) in the state say that allowing individual states to act on their own to enforce immigration laws is a better approach to dealing with immigration. This is also very similar to opinions on the national level. One-in-three voters (35%) think it is better to rely on the federal government to enforce immigration laws. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure which is a better option.

Fifty percent (50%) of Democrats think it is better to leave immigration enforcement to the federal government, while most Republicans and unaffiliated voters hold the opposite view.

www.rasmussenreports.com