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Poll: Calif. voters have firm, varied views on illegal immigrants

The Associated Press | Wednesday, Apr 12 2006 6:15 AM

Last Updated: Wednesday, Apr 12 2006 6:15 AM

Three quarters of California voters favor allowing some illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens, but 60 percent support imposing stiff penalties on employers who hire undocumented workers, according to results of a new poll released Wednesday.

The telephone poll by the Field Research Corporation of San Francisco also found that 64 percent of state voters oppose letting illegal immigrants obtain California drivers licenses and 57 percent are against charging them with felonies for their unlawful presence in the country. Voters are about evenly split on building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

More than 90 percent of people surveyed said they consider immigration issues to be very important or somewhat important in this year's gubernatorial election.

The poll, conducted by telephone in English and Spanish between April 3 and 10, randomly surveyed registered voters on nine immigration reform proposals being debated at the state and federal levels.

Voters from all groups overwhelmingly supported giving illegal immigrants the opportunity to become citizens provided they remained employed, learned English and paid any back taxes or fines they owed.

Responses to most other proposals, however, varied along ethnic, political and geographical lines.

For example, 39 percent of Latinos but 60 percent of overall voters supported penalties against employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Conversely, 74 percent of Latinos but just 51 percent of overall voters favored allowing illegal immigrants who graduated from California high schools to attend colleges at in-state tuition rates.

Democrats and independent voters generally advocated more moderate positions toward illegal immigrants while Republicans favored more conservative approaches. Additionally, Southern Californians outside of Los Angeles generally favored harsher measures than voters in the nine-county San Francisco Bay area.

Researchers questioned 917 registered voters on six of the proposals, with a sampling error of 3.4 percentage points.

Of that group, 532 were surveyed on three proposals being debated by the U.S. Senate, with a sampling error rate of 4.5 percentage points.

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