Thursday, December 10, 2009

Californians Concerned About Ilegals - AS THE OCCUPATION IS EXPANDED BY DEMS

Californians recognize complex nature of immigration better than politicians
By Daniel Weintraub
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:04/11/2007 01:40:26 AM PDT

Unlike most politicians, California voters as a group favor a nuanced approach to illegal immigration that would stiffen enforcement at the borders but also allow more legal immigration and create a path to citizenship for people already in this country illegally, a new poll suggests.

That multi-pronged approach largely reflects a bipartisan proposal in Congress supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But it is tougher on border enforcement than most Democratic elected officials would like and easier on illegal immigrants than most Republican lawmakers would support.

The survey of registered voters was conducted by Field Research and included 570 interviews between March 20 and 31. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The results mirrored other recent polls that have found Californians very concerned about illegal immigration even though the issue has not been at the top of the state or national policy agenda in recent months.

According to the Field Poll, 49 percent of registered voters say illegal immigration is a "very serious problem" and 28 percent rate it a "serious problem." Concern runs highest in Southern California outside Los Angeles County, where 58 percent say illegal immigration is a "very serious" problem.

Large majorities of Californians favor tougher measures to stop illegal immigration. More than 7 in 10 (71 percent) support hiring more border agents, while 63 percent favor stiff penalties on employers and individuals who hire illegal immigrants. More than half (53 percent) support having federal agents "round up, detain and deport" illegal immigrants they find in the community.

The only measure in the poll that did not draw majority support was building a wall along major sections of the U.S.-Mexico border. That idea is backed by 37 percent of registered voters.

But the get-tough attitude of the voters is balanced by an equal measure of tolerance, or at least realism. More than 8 in 10 voters (83 percent) said they favored a program that would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country and apply for citizenship if they had a job, learned English and paid back taxes.

And 67 percent said they would support temporary worker programs that would legalize the status of illegal immigrants and allow future immigrants to work in this country.

Support for both wings of this approach - except for the wall - seems to have hardened over the past year. More Californians favor stiffer sanctions on employers who hire illegal workers than did a year ago, but more voters also favor a path to citizenship and a guest-worker program.

The poll did find different attitudes among non-Latino whites and Latinos on these issues, but not as much as some might expect.

Eighty-two percent of white voters, for instance, favor a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, while 89 percent of Latinos support such a program. And while 65 percent of whites support a guest-worker program, 75 percent of Latinos support that approach.

The differences were greater when voters were asked about the more punitive policies.

Seventy-five percent of whites support hiring more border agents, while 54 percent of Latinos take that position. And while 68 percent of whites favor stiffer employer sanctions, 43 percent of Latinos like that idea. Fifty-eight percent of whites favor a round-up of people here illegally, while 35 percent of Latinos support that approach. And while 39 percent of whites support building a wall, 30 percent of Latinos are in favor of such a barrier.

Still, it's worth noting that large numbers of Latinos favor some policies that only the most conservative Republicans in the Legislature or Congress would advocate.

Like the other numbers in this poll, that finding is another demonstration that on immigration, as on so many other issues, California's elected representatives do not reflect the diversity of opinion in the state.

On immigration, most elected Democrats tend to oppose further measures to strengthen border enforcement, while almost all Republican lawmakers oppose measures to allow illegal immigrants already here to apply for citizenship. Both parties' elected members tend to reflect the dominant view of their party's members while almost completely excluding the position of a sizable number of voters in each party.

This is the one issue on which President Bush is perhaps closest to the Democrats in Congress with whom he has been at loggerheads on so many other policy questions. Like Schwarzenegger, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and a few other Republicans of national stature, Bush favors a policy of tougher border enforcement coupled with a route to citizenship for people already in the country illegally.

With Republicans in control of Congress last year, that idea stalled.

But now that Democrats hold the majority, it's at least possible that they can cut a deal with the president. If they want to.

California is the state affected most by both legal and illegal immigration. Its leaders, from the governor and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on down, ought to do everything they can to bridge the ideological gap that has separated the parties from each other, and separated lawmakers from their voters, on this issue.

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