70% Support Crackdown On Those Who Hire Illegal Immigrants

Friday, June 04, 2010

Seventy percent (70%) of U.S. voters favor strict government sanctions on employers who hire illegal immigrants, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Only 21% oppose such sanctions.

A year ago, 68% supported tough employer sanctions. Four years ago, when the Senate debate over immigration reform was at its height, 60% supported such sanctions.

Voters also are more strongly supportive of strict government sanctions on landlords who rent or sell property to illegal immigrants. Fifty percent (50%) now favor such sanctions, up from 48% last year and 44% in 2006.

Thirty-three percent (33%) oppose cracking down on landlords who rent or sell to illegal immigrants, and 17% more are undecided.

Right now, 56% of voters think the policies of the federal government actually encourage illegal immigration.

Still, there is a big distinction in the minds of voters between dealing with illegal immigrants and overall immigration policy. Sixty percent (60%) favor a welcoming immigration policy that excludes only national security threats, criminals and those who would come here to live off our welfare system. Twenty-six percent (26%) disagree with such a policy. These sentiments have held steady over the past four years.

Yet those who support such a policy feel even more strongly that there should be strict government sanctions against both employers and landlords who deal with illegal immigrants.

The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on June 1-2, 2010 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.

Mainstream voters and the Political Class don’t see eye-to-eye, as is often the case. While 60% of Mainstream voters favor tough sanctions on landlords who rent or sell to illegal immigrants, 53% of the Political Class oppose such sanctions. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Mainstream voters think there should be tough government sanctions on employers, too, but the Political Class is narrowly divided on the question.

Support for tough sanctions against both employers and landlords is highest among middle-income voters who earn $40,000 to $100,000 per year.

Republicans and voters not affiliated with either party are much more supportive of tough sanctions in both areas than Democrats are.

As the national debate over Arizona’s new immigration law continues, voters overwhelmingly oppose allowing illegal immigrants to be eligible for state and federal government benefits. Fifty-eight percent (58%) say a child born to an illegal immigrant in this country should not automatically become a U.S. citizen, as the law currently allows.

Arizona officials say their law is necessary because the federal government is failing to enforce federal immigration policy. Illegals, they say, are hurting the state both in terms of cost to the taxpayer and public safety. President Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and others have complained that the state’s law could lead to racial profiling, but 58% of voters nationwide favor passage of a law like Arizona’s in their own state.

Legislators in Washington once again are talking about immigration reform, but voters across the nation remain skeptical about the federal government’s role in the immigration debate. Three-out-of-four voters believe that the federal government is not doing enough to secure the nation’s borders.

Among voters who are angry about immigration, 83% are angry at the federal government. Only 12% direct their anger at the immigrants.

Most voters continue to say as they have for years that gaining control of the border is more important than legalizing the status of undocumented workers. In fact, 67% now say military troops should be sent to the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigration.

www.rasmussenreports.com