Eighty percent of Americans polled believe their government is ‘not doing enough’ to control illegal immigration

January 3, 2006

Now that Congress has returned to Washington, lawmakers will try to reconcile conflicting public attitudes on immigration. Resolving the immigration problem has become a crusade to some conservatives, one that has defied effective solution over the past 30 years.

A new poll has found that Americans are alarmed by the federal government's failure to do more to block the flow of illegal immigration and also are critical of the impact of illegal immigration on the country. Still, they are receptive to the aspirations of undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States.

If politicians are inconsistent on immigration, says one pollster, it’s because the public is not consistent either.
In many parts of the country, not just those near the Mexican border, immigration has become an issue of pressing significance because of its economic, racial and national security implications. As an national issue, Immigration still ranks below the war in Iraq, terrorism, health care and the economy on the public's list of priorities.

The consensus today is on the need for enhanced border security, driven by traditional concerns about jobs and the strains illegal immigrants put on state and local resources, but also by worries that the porous border makes America more vulnerable to terrorists.

The public and politicians are far more divided on the difficult question of how to treat the roughly 11 million illegal migrants already in the country.

Conservative anti-illegal immigration activists succeeded in the House in December in passing legislation calling for the construction of nearly 700 miles of fence along the Mexican border. It also includes strict measures to police employers to prevent them from hiring undocumented workers.

But the public is angry about illegal immigration. The Post-ABC News poll, conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News, found that 80 percent Americans think the government is not doing enough to prevent illegal immigration.

It also found that 56 percent believe that illegal immigrants have done more to hurt the country than to help it, with 37 percent saying they help the country. About three in five Republicans and a bare majority of Democrats agreed that illegal immigrants are detrimental to the country.

The only groups in the poll who disagreed were people with postgraduate degrees, those with incomes exceeding $100,000 and nonwhite respondents.

But many expressed support for trying to help those already here to stay and achieve legal status. The poll asked whether illegal immigrants who are working here should be given the opportunity to keep their jobs and eventually apply for legal status, or be rounded up and deported to their native countries. Three in five Americans said undocumented workers should be given the opportunity to stay and become citizens.

Public frustration is clear, and politicians have responded. In Arizona, irritation over illegal immigration spawned the Minutemen movement, with citizens organized to police the borders on their own. Democrats as well as Republicans have felt the heat. Two Democratic governors, Arizona's Janet Napolitano and New Mexico's Bill Richardson, declared emergencies along their borders and shifted state resources to local governments to help pay the costs of dealing with the phenomenon.

President Bush got his lowest marks on immigration in the mid-December poll, with 33 percent saying they approved of how he was handling the issue.

A Gallup poll in early December found that 56 percent of Americans said the government's principal focus should be on stopping the flow of illegal immigration, rather than working on a plan that would allow those here to become legal residents.

Bush has proposed a guest-worker program as part of a comprehensive immigration package, but Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), has denounced the plan as a thinly disguised amnesty for undocumented immigrants. Tancredo's view prevailed in the House, which rebuffed the president by failing to include a guest-worker plan in its legislation.

In the Senate, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) have sponsored legislation that calls for creating such a program and the possibility for illegal immigrants eventually to regularize their status in the United States. But finding a Senate majority for any comprehensive proposal will be difficult -- and even if approved there, such a measure would surely face stiff opposition back in the House.

Immigration cuts across party lines and has split both parties' coalitions. That suggests the possibility for a bipartisan solution, but in reality it might make compromise even more remote.