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Jonathan Alcorn / Reuters
People line up for assistance with paperwork for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, August 15, 2012.
WASHINGTON — More than half of U.S. citizens believe that most or all of the country's 11 million illegal immigrants should be deported, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday that highlights the difficulties facing lawmakers trying to reform the U.S. immigration system.
The online survey shows resistance to easing immigration laws despite the biggest push for reform in Congress since 2007.
Thirty percent of those polled think that most illegal immigrants, with some exceptions, should be deported, while 23 percent believe all illegal immigrants should be deported.
Only 5 percent believe all illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the United States legally, and 31 percent want most illegal immigrants to stay.
These results are in line with other polls in recent years, suggesting that people's views on immigration have not changed dramatically since the immigration debate reignited in Congress last month, according to Ipsos pollster Julia Clark.
"It's not Americans' views that are shifting. It is that the political climate is ripe for this discussion," after the November election when Hispanics voted overwhelmingly in favor of Democratic President Barack Obama, she said.
"Democrats feel that the time is right to capitalize on their wins and Republicans feel that they had a bad blow and are eager to reach out to Hispanics," she added.
Polls show that most Americans back immigration reform, although they often have different ideas of what that means, with some people favoring looser immigration laws while others want to see greater border security.
A group of eight U.S. senators are working on a bipartisan deal to enact immigration reform, the first major attempt since a similar overhaul died in Congress six years ago.
The senators' proposal calls for a full path to citizenship for illegal immigrants once they pay back taxes and a fine and wait in line behind others applying to become Americans.
A plan by Obama has similar provisions, but the senators want any move to relax immigration laws dependant on boosting security on the southern border.
Attitudes toward immigration are polarized by party, according to another the Reuters/Ipsos poll. Seventy-five percent of Republicans think all or most immigrants should be deported, compared to 40 percent of Democrats who think the same.
Republican Senator John McCain, one of the eight senators in the group, had his own encounter with citizens angered by illegal immigration on Tuesday when residents of his state of Arizona complained bitterly at a town hall meeting about the lack of security on the border with Mexico.
One man asked why troops had not been deployed to the border.
"Why didn't the army go down there and stop them? Because the only thing that stops them I'm afraid to say, and it's too damn bad, is a gun," the man said.
Another resident, Keith Smith, got into a testy exchange with McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate whose views on immigration have fluctuated over the years.
"Cut off their welfare and all their stuff and they'll go back," Smith said, referring to undocumented workers.
McCain had been trying to explain his position: "You're not telling these people the truth. They mow our lawns, they care for our babies, they clean ... that's what those people do," he said.
The Arizona lawmaker, whose position on immigration hardened during the 2010 midterm elections before softening again, is a key part of the Republican side of the senators' bipartisan immigration effort.
Wednesday's Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted Friday through Tuesday and surveyed 1,443 Americans over the age of 18.
The precision of the Reuters/Ipsos online poll is measured using a credibility interval. In this survey, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix
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It's impossible to deport all illegals. If it were feasible to deport, I would agree, but it's not. There needs to be a path to legal status for law-abiding illegals, but the path to citizenship should begin in the back of the line with those who are waiting the "legal" way.
"law abiding illegals"?
Are you effing high, or what.
No it isn't. It can happen over time if we enforce ALL of our laws. It's far more expensive to keep them here than to enforce our laws! The notion that we will commence enforcement of our laws by granting mass amnesty to those who selfishly violated our laws is a fallacy! Amnesty only serves to invite exponentially more ILLEGALS in the future (as Reagan's 1986 amnesty proved)!
@ poncero ~ seriously? we should reward people who take cuts in line and sneak in? The path to citizenship starts at the end of the line - back in their own country.
Hey Ponch - mandatory E-Verify with $1,000 per day fines for those that comply will cause almost all illegals to go home when the jobs dry up.
Typical DC response from someone who doesn't want to fix the problem.
Eisenhower rounded up and deported them and Obama could too if he had any backbone or cared for Americans (not the pre-legal ones they want to make Americans).
Everything I read about the 'back of the line' gives them a green card and the ability to work here while millions wait patiently for their chance to immigrate legally.
That's not the back of the line - that's being driven to the front in a limo.
Self-deportation for most of them and the rest will be easier to round up and deport.
That is what most Americans want.
There should be NO path to citizenship for anyone here illegally, whether by sneaking across the border or overstaying their visa. The most they should get is permanent residency with restrictions. They must be REQUIRED to pay a fine and back taxes, no matter how far back, unless they can somehow prove they paid taxes under their OWN name. If they can't pay within 3 years, THEN they will be deported. I don't care how many of their American born children live here. They are welcome to go with the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, aunt twice removed, etc., back to their original country. If they would like to self-deport, then, they can join the line just like everyone else. I can overlook their being here illegally, if they self deport to try the legal way.
poncero, what part of breaking into our country does not make them a crook.
Well @!$%#! Might as well cancel all the arrest warrants in the United states too, I mean it's impossible to go out and arrest everyone right this minute so why try. And yeah, law abiding illegals, thats a hoot.
Duh and Double Duh, They are just now waking up to this fact?? As for this crap about them taking the jobs nobody else wants, that's just somethong the Greedy business people cooked up. When we get a Mexican president when Obamas term is up we can all thank greedy business and Political correctness. What i like best is standing in line in the super market and see a mexican pull out a welfare card and get their food free. The same when I go to the Pharmacy to get medication, I pay for mine, theirs is free. This goes for the Somalia immigrants coming to this country also. I work a lifetime and they get more than I do after never putting One thin Dime into the system. That is why we are going broke.
let's face it. This country is weak and nobody is going to a thing about it except bleed this system dry until we crack and that is coming.
I cannot figure it out that 500 idiot politican's in Washington can control 300 million people. When are the American people going to revolt!!! I be in the line when it occurs.
the people with the money have to keep bringing people in cause the accidents from a night of drinking can't hang...........it will always be the same........
Deport the illegals, and an apple will cost $5. A hotel room in Reno will double in price. As will many other services that involve small businesses - like plumbing as an example. Who do you think the plumber's helper is? Otherwise, some work will simply go undone - Americans too lazy to work for peanuts - or too smart, depending on how you look at it, eh?
hey schmuck, you know that 7.9 percent unemployment rate we have now, deport all these Illegals and watch that number drop in half overnight, i dont care if the price of my hotel room goes up or an apple costs more as long as i dont have to look at these scum balls in my neighborhood !
When the market adjusts it overall adjusts. At the end of the day there is a net cost in the billions per state per year of illegal immigrants. In short, they cost far more than they contribute.
@ hr dawg. Wow, you are so wrong. That apple you bought today cost a lot more than you think it did. Because you also paid for a free public education for the children of the guy who picked it. And free medical care in the emergency room. And food stamps and medical coupons and TANF for their anchor babies. Why can't our welfare recipients pick the apples? We are already paying their way.
@HRDawg,
That fallacy about the high cost of apples and oranges was disproven back in the 90's.
Paying $10/hr to pick them would only add 5 cents a pound to the cost of fruit.
The teenagers will be able to get jobs, and the undereducated Americans will be able to get jobs. As for the "farm" workers, less than 5% of the illegal aliens work in agriculture. As it is, the U.S. HAS a guest worker program, even for the Agriculture fields, but the farmers, ranchers, etc., think it's "too hard and too expensive (WHINE) for them to use it. They would rather have the illegals working as slaves instead of paying them a decent wage.
As a business owner, if you offer a wage and no one bites, then, you have two choices, offer a better wage or do without that work position. Business owners will learn to adjust or go under. If they can't adjust, they deserve to go under.
HR, not if you reduce welfare and food stamps. I'd much rather see free child care provided and have the parents working in the fields and training to become a plumber. We don't need illegal's to survive. Who did it before they slipped in?
Replace welfare with workfare and give jobs to the unemployed and you've solved the problem… The average welfare recipient "makes" more than $30/hour… to do??????????????? (google it if you don't believe me)
At the end of the day, I'd rather pay more for services and products if it meant that legal citizens and residents of the U.S.A. are the ones who were working as opposed to ILLEGAL immigrants. No, I'm not rich by any means or comparison, its just a matter of principle. Send all 11 million of them (and their US-born kids) packing and the U.S.A. will be better off.
If not welfare recipients, who I think could be a perfect solution for the pickers who are deported. Work or no tax payer funded check and benefits.
Why not those in our prisons and jails? Make them pay for themselves. Don't want to work, then they should figure out a way to pay for their own food, clothing and cost of living (clothes that would have been provide by the prison/jail, not their choice).
Why should either of these groups sit on their butts all day and night, doing absolutely nothing worthy in their lives? In the case of welfare recipients, making more parasites for us to pay for?
It's time we make the parasites pay for themselves. And, it's time we figure out a way for our tax dollars to be diverted to better use. Like paying off the national debt or making Social Security solvent again.
Just remember, unless you are a full-blooded Native American, you are an immigrant also.
That your grandparents emigrated from Italy, or Germany, or England (with no long delays or onerous requirements) doesn't make you any more an American than someone whose parents came here from Mexico.
hey dummy! even the American indians came here from somewhere.
Deport them all !!!, where there's a will there's a way..this Govt just dont have the will !
we need the job they are taking for ourselves and our kids..You know that High unemployment rate we have, watch it drop once they are gone !
OBAMA = FAIL
Wrong. My grandparents were "legal" immigrants and it certainly wasn't easy to get here. My grandfather came from Italy with nothing except the clothes he was wearing the day he left and received no help from anyone. And, yes, I am more Amercian than any illegal regardless of where they're from because I am a "citizen."
Jonathan, there wasn't even a country here when the "Native" Americans arrived, so that is not a valid comparison. Go back to school and pay attention this time, 'mkay?
Jonathan, you are so full of it. The native american indian, are not native. They migrated to this country and shoved someone out. Just the same as happened to them.
No kidding we favor deportaion. Its the law. Remember!!!!!!!!!
We can't keep up with the growing number of people already in the this country. OVer 60 million on welfare. What is wrong with closing our borders and sending the ILLEGALS Back? Illegal means that they did wrong, don't reward for doing the wrong thing. People are mad and sick of the governement wasting our tax dollars. Get rid of Welfare or least put a time length on it, these people are generation after generation reaping the benefits just because they don't want to work and they are lazy. How is that my fault. The illegals here, and wanting citizenship work mostly in the trades so there goes another 11-20 million more on welfare!
Why should native born Americans give up everything that they have fought and died for in the name of some half baked left-wing politicians idea of "altruism"? Don't be stupid, keep you country and your stuff. They will elect socialists and take everything they can get. America belongs to Americans. We earned it.
soon the jobs the illeagles are performing will be the jobs our citizens must take, this includes sad as it may sound even some of our Veterans. I do not want to say that all of thsese jobs are bad because many are fine jobs that USA citizens would already be working were it not for the greedy who are working the cracks left by the lazy wishy washy a...holes we elect to s.....w us
Post office jobs that pay very well are Loaded and I mean loaded with Immigrants. Some even have Interpertors because they don't speak english. Americans wouldn't want to have these jobs?? Nah.
We don't need to spend a bunch of money on this.
Just post warning flyers (in Spanish) in locations frequented by criminals, telling them to get out now.
Then fabricate a giant catapult, to deport them back to the general direction of their home country. The Mexicans are going to have it the worst, because they will not be facing a water landing...
Illegal aliens are ILLEGAL breaking the law, whem is it ok to break the law and cross the border illegally. Just encouraging bad behavior with all this amnesty, yes AMNESTY! That is what this is!
The key word is illegal,,but dc cannot read
How is this even debatable?
Deportation. Yes starting tomorrow!
These politicians will do ANYTHING for a vote. If that means opening the gates for Illegals, so be it.
Wrong. The truth is: I do all that stuff myself. Deport ALL these criminals back to whatever sh!thole they crawled out of.
Yup. They rape their own children, kill innocent American citizens in drunk driving hit-and-runs, mooch off of welfare, and use all their free time to steal stuff from those of us who had to go to work to earn the money to pay them to do all that.
The 1st and 2nd illegals to be deported should be Auntie Zuni and Uncle DWI.
This Poll was taken by
R-pie-hole and his deputies
Oh, we the people are in favor of deportation....Then Obummer will give them all citizenship.
Who are you calling WE
You got a turd in your pocket.
Typical Obama, he'll just doing whatever he wants no matter what the rest of the country thinks. He's driving our country right into the ground.
Following the lead of Ronnie "BOY" Reagan
Let em all stay
It was fine wit da replicans then
They did not like the idea by bushie2 when he tried it
Think it was because he was wit Pain McCain and Kennedy in 2008 when he tried it.
A Democrat trying to do what Reagan did
Blasphemous
The Democrats want the votes and the Republicans want the cheap labor that drives down the wages of real Americans and legal green card holders.
The politicians don't work for us!
You don't speak for the Republicans.
Then you don't know squat.
colorobo, vern is correct, you don't speak for the republicans, thank god!
This is what happens and what you get when you elect 90% of the same politicians back into office time after time. I am for and against term limits as it really doesn't solve the bigger problem. I am for it because the politician can't make buddy buddy with really anyone in that short of period. I am against it because who ever gets elected won't care what he/she votes for or against, four years they know their gone, eight, maybe two two year terms, it doesn't matter. 535 honest politicians ( yea I know, an oxymoron ) would be the best solution.
Kick 'em all out NOW !!!!!!
OBAMA = FAIL
United States President Barack Hussein Obama
Won
you lost.
Haven't checked the election results?
I did not even know that calmike-376890 was running! He needs a Super PAC.
u mean I wasted my vote ??
Have not voted since 1972
fer ure info
Peasant Ostumbler's illegal alien amnesty will crash and burn along with his gun grabbing hallucination.