A poll released yesterday found that 22 percent of probably voters in the US election want to see immigration cut down to zero, while 32 percent want it reduced to just 500,000 per annum. Only 11 percent want to see a million or more immigrants allowed to enter the country every year.
According to the results of the poll, conducted by Pulse Opinion Research on behalf of the Center for Immigration Studies, 68 percent of Republicans want to see zero or drastically reduced immigration in comparison to 45 percent of Democrats.
Of 1000 probably voters surveyed between 1 and 3 November, 58 percent did not agree with allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the US, even if they have committed no serious criminal offences, although 31 percent believed they should be allowed to remain.
The overwhelming majority of respondents – 59 percent – believe the first thing that needs to be done with regards to illegal immigration is for all employers in the US to be required to verify the legal status of all their employees. Over half – 56 percent – support the idea of penalizing employers that hire undocumented immigrants and denying them access to welfare benefits, although those policies were opposed by 31 percent, with 14 percent undecided.
54 percent stated that they did not think the US government had done enough to enforce existing immigration laws, while 12 percent believe that it has already done too much.