May 1 rallies backfired, moving Americans toward tougher enforcement of immigration laws

May 8, 2006

An overwhelming majority of Americans wants to see employers who hire illegal aliens to punished. Three-quarters (74%) of those questions in a recent poll said the U.S. should take legal enforcement action against employers who knowingly hire illegals. Only 14% said employers shouldn't be punished.

Republicans, Democrats and independents all supported punishment for employers who hire illegals, but 81, 74 and 70 percent, respectively. Republicans were more likely (76 percent) to say border control should precede amnesty or guest workers.

The poll clearly showed that Americans are generally moving toward a tougher approach to illegals after a month of huge rallies by Latino immigrants.

Said Raghavan Mayur, of Investor Business Daily’s polling partner TIPP, 'Rather than galvanizing Americans in support of illegal immigrants, the rallies, marches and attempts to flex their economic muscles may have backfired,' he said.

But two-thirds (68%) of those surveyed said the U.S. should control its borders before considering amnesty or guest worker programs. Nearly two-thirds (64%) still say the U.S. should focus on enforcing existing immigration laws rather than bring in more guest workers.

Sixty-four percent of those polled also thought that lax immigration enforcement leaves the U.S. vulnerable to terrorists.

'Eventually employers are going to have to deal with this problem of work-site verification, so they need to be thinking about that day rather than, 'How many lobbyists can we pay to put that day off?' ' said Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors strict limits.

The results were based on a May 1-6 U.S. poll of 1,004 adults, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points. The results mirror a recent Zogby survey for CIS. Zogby found likely voters favoring 2-to-1 the enforcement-only bill passed by the House in December over a broader Senate bill up for debate that would greatly expand legal immigration and amnesty most illegals.