Thursday, May 13, 2010

The support for Arizona enforcing immigration law is broad

Two major polls found the same thing: A strong majority of Americans favor enforcing current immigration law that Arizona is doing. It required a new law to enforce the old ones, for some reason. McClatchy-Ipsos and Pew found the same thing. Here is McClatchy's press release:
A strong majority of Americans support Arizona's controversial new immigration law and would back similar laws in their own states, a new McClatchy-Ipsos poll found. Sixty-one percent of Americans — and 64 percent of registered voters — said they favored the law in a survey of 1,016 adults conducted May 6-9. Strikingly, nearly half of Democrats like the law, under which local law enforcement officers are tasked with verifying people's immigration status if they suspect them of being in the country illegally. While the Democratic Party generally is regarded as more sympathetic to illegal immigrants' plights, 46 percent of Democrats said they favored the law for Arizona and 49 percent said they'd favor the law's passage in their own states. More than 8 in 10 Republicans and 54 percent of independents favor the law. In addition, about 69 percent of Americans said they wouldn't mind if police officers stopped them to ask for proof of their citizenship or legal rights to be in the country; about 29 percent would mind, considering it a violation of their rights; and about 3 percent were unsure. ...
Did you notice? Nearly half of Democrats support the law. And Pew Research Center for the People & the Press:
Fully 73% say they approve of requiring people to produce documents verifying their legal status if police ask for them. Two-thirds (67%) approve of allowing police to detain anyone who cannot verify their legal status, while 62% approve of allowing police to question people they think may be in the country illegally. After being asked about the law's provisions, 59% say that, considering everything, they approve of Arizona's new illegal immigration law while 32% disapprove. ...

No comments: