Thread: 58% say no to citizenship for children Of Illegals

58% Say No to Citizenship for Children of Illegal Immigrants
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say a child born to an illegal immigrant in this country should not automatically become a citizen of the United States, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Thirty-three percent (33%) disagree and say if a women enters the United States as an illegal alien and gives birth to a child here, that child should automatically be a U.S. citizen. That’s what the current law allows and many believe it would require a Constitutional Amendment to change the law.

Voter sentiments are basically unchanged from four years ago when the Senate was considering the immigration issue. The Senate was eventually forced to drop its plans and surrender to public opinion on the topic.

On another aspect of the debate, voters overwhelmingly oppose allowing illegal immigrants to be eligible for state and federal government benefits. Just nine percent (9%) say illegals should receive such benefits, but 85% say they should not.

Most voters believe that the availability of government money and services draws illegal immigrants to the United States.

Still, there is a huge distinction in the minds of voters between dealing with illegal immigrants and overall immigration policy. Sixty percent (60%) of voters favor a welcoming immigrant 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, and 14% more are not sure.

These sentiments, too, have remained constant for years. The current support for a welcoming policy is similar to that found shortly after passage of the Arizona immigration law that stirred a national controversy. In fact, support for a welcoming policy has changed little over the past four years.

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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.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of Democrats think children born to illegal immigrants in this country should automatically become U.S. citizens. Seventy-six percent (76%) of Republicans and 60% of voters not affiliated with either major party disagree.

Most Americans don’t believe Mexico wants to stop the illegal flow of its citizens into this country and think America’s southern neighbor should be asked to compensate U.S. taxpayers for costs incurred by illegal immigration.

Even as legislators in Washington once again are talking about immigration reform, 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. Fifty-six percent (56%) believe the policies of the federal government actually encourage illegal immigration.

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.

Arizona officials say their recent adoption of a tough immigration enforcement law is due to the federal government’s failure to enforce federal immigration policy. While President Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and others have complained that the state’s law could lead to racial profiling, 58% of voters nationwide favor passage of a law like Arizona’s in their own state.

Boston and Los Angeles were among the first to announce boycotts of Arizona, but 68% of Americans say it’s a bad idea for other cities or states to boycott Arizona over its new immigration law.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_ ... immigrants

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