CNN Poll: 81% Approve Legalisation Programme

July 27, 2010
CNN Poll: Should illegal immigrants be allowed to stay?
Posted: July 27th, 2010 05:48 PM ET

Washington (CNN) - The vast majority of Americans say they favor allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. if they have a job and pay their taxes, according to a new national poll. But a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey also indicates that a majority of the public says such a plan takes a back seat to stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into the country.

Eighty-one percent of people questioned in the poll say they support creating a program that would allow illegal immigrants already living in the U.S. for a number of years to stay here and apply to legally remain in this country permanently if they had a job and paid back taxes, with 19 percent opposed to such a plan.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/im...7/rel10f1a.pdf

According to the poll 94 percent of white respondents favor the program, 16 points higher than the 78 percent of Hispanics questioned who back a plan that would provide a pathway to legal status for some illegal immigrants.


But the survey indicates that 57 percent of Americans say the main focus of the federal government in dealing with the issue of illegal immigration should be developing a plan that would stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country and deporting those already in the U.S. That's 15 points higher than the 42 percent who say developing a plan that would allow illegal immigrants who have jobs to become U.S. residents should be Washington's top priority.

The survey's Tuesday release comes two days before the scheduled implementation of a tough and controversial immigration law in Arizona. The measure, signed into law by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer in April, requires police to question people about their status if they have been detained for another reason and if there is reason to suspect they're in the United States illegally. It also targets those who hire illegal immigrant laborers or knowingly transport them.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted July 16-21, with 1,018 adult Americans questioned by telephone, including a special sample of 308 black and 303 Hispanic respondents. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

-CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

Filed under: CNN poll • Immigration • issues

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...id=6PcbqcirRqN

19% don't want a path to legalization? That is actually good news when you really think about it. MSM makes it seem like 80% want us gone.

unless they have immigrant family members or friends limbo, or are a corp. or business dependent on cheap labor; they WANT YOU OUT!!.. stop believing in these dumb ass polls. the average American doesn't get anything from wanting any more immigration to the U.S, except him having to compete, good for the buyer; bad for the seller.

i read another poll that said 98% of people want us legalized, but then again the poll was taken in a meat packing plant... lmao

I never said that I believed it. All I'm saying is that this is a change from the usual polls that normally say that 80% of the country (or some obscenely large amount) want us gone.

eh don't hurt your head thinking about it... they wanted people out and lower immigration levels even back in the 1950's... go to England and you'll see the same problem; they want the Eastern Europeans out and the Muslim groups.

no one wants to compete anymore... its like they say "give the dog house food, and good luck trying to make him eat his own food"..

people by nature don't like it when you take things away from them. try and tell senior citizens that they won't get pension... one good thing they tried to tell during the communist era was "be very careful about some benefits you give people, cause if you later try and take it away from them; they will be very unhappy".