Washington – A strong majority of Americans – including nearly two-thirds of Republicans – favors allowing illegal immigrants to become citizens if they pay fines, learn English and meet other requirements, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
That is a striking show of support for the central tenet of legislation that has stalled in the Senate amid vocal opposition from conservatives.
Only 23 percent of adults surveyed opposed allowing immigrants to become legal. That bolsters the view, shared by President Bush, that the bill’s opponents represent a vocal minority, whereas most people are more welcoming toward illegal immigrants.
“They are willing to take jobs that our people aren’t interested in, and I think this helps the economy,” Joseph Simpkins, a retired dry cleaner in New Jersey who participated in the survey, said in a follow-up interview. “As long as they pay taxes, I see nothing wrong with having them become citizens.”
The immigration bill, a priority for the White House, is languishing at a time when Bush’s approval ratings are at a new low: The poll found that 34 percent approved of the job Bush was doing, the lowest approval rating registered by the Los Angeles Times poll throughout his presidency.
Debate on immigration heated up in recent weeks as the Senate has taken up – and last week blocked – a Bush-backed bill that would have overhauled immigration laws.
The bill aims to establish a pathway for illegal immigrants to become citizens if they meet certain requirements. It would provide a guest-worker program to provide temporary visas for immigrant workers and create a point system for evaluating new immigrants that would put less weight on family ties and more on applicants’ skills and education.
Underscoring the urgency of the debate, 13 percent of those surveyed said illegal immigration was not an important problem; 86 percent said it was an important problem.
The path to citizenship provision was backed by 63 percent of those surveyed – even by 58 percent of those who identified themselves as conservatives and 65 percent of Republicans.
The telephone survey of 1,183 adults was conducted Thursday through Sunday. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
