Poll: Voters Want Immigration 'Pause,' More Enforcement, Preference Given to US Workers

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/08/20/Poll-Voters-Want-Immigration-Pause-More-Enforcement-Preference-Given-to-US-Workers

By Tony Lee

A blockbuster new poll obtained by Breitbart News reveals that a majority of likely voters want to push the pause button on massive immigration, similar to what occurred between 1915-1964, which allowed legal immigrants a chance to more fully assimilate while the middle class expanded as wages increased.

As President Barack Obama considers giving more guest-worker permits to companies that have laid off American workers and granting temporary work permits and executive amnesty to millions of more illegal immigrants, a comprehensive survey from Kellyanne Conway's The Polling Company found that a majority of likely voters want even fewer legal immigrants. The poll found that "half of Americans age 65 and over" and 46% of Midwesterners support a zero immigration policy. Furthermore, "independents (47%) were more likely than Republicans (40%) or Democrats (37%) to want zero new immigrants allowed into the country."

The survey, which polled 1,001 likely voters from July 16-20, also revealed that an overwhelming majority of Americans want more enforcement of the country's immigration laws and employers to give preference to U.S. citizens over legal and illegal immigrants when hiring. For instance, "90% of likely voters feel that "U.S.- born workers and legal immigrants already here should get first preference for jobs." Even among likely voters who think that illegal immigration laws are enforced "too much," 67% believed that jobs now held by illegal immigrants should go to American workers. Among those who favor legal status for illegal immigrants, that number is 80%. And even among those who favor a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, 61% feel that Americans should be employed in jobs that illegals currently have.

When asked whether Americans should compete for jobs illegals are doing, 83% of whites agreed while 12% disagreed. Among blacks, 73% agreed while 22% disagreed, and among Hispanics, 73% agreed while 21% disagreed. When asked what U.S. businesses that are having trouble finding workers should do, 75% felt they should "raise wages and improve working conditions to attract Americans" instead of importing more immigrant workers--including 73% of whites, 83% of blacks, 71% of Hispanics, 74% of Republicans, 79% of Democrats, and 74% of independents. On top of that, 80% believed that U.S. businesses should try harder to "recruit and train more American workers from groups with the highest unemployment levels, rather than allowing them to bring in more immigrant workers."

After over 60,000 illegal immigrant juveniles, lured by Obama's executive amnesty, have flooded across the border since October of last year, "75% want more enforcement of current immigration laws, including 63% of Hispanics and over 50% of Democrats." Consistent with other public surveys, 60% believed that "sending these children back to their home countries will convince parents to stop sending their children to the U.S. border," and even "a majority of those who do not see immigration as a top ten issue want illegals returned home."

As for Obama's potential executive amnesty, 74% of respondents, including 81% of independents and 75% of moderates, reject it. Another 67%, including 64% of union members, believe that benefits and access to jobs for illegal immigrants should be reduced to compel illegal immigrants to return to their home countries and a majority across party lines want chain migration to be "limited to only spouses and minor children of legal immigrants."

A majority also recognized that plenty of Americans want to do jobs they are told they supposedly "won't do." For instance, "58% agree that there are plenty of Americans to do construction and service industry jobs, with no need for increased immigration to fill them." America has a surplus of both high-tech and low-skilled workers, and the poll found that 75% of likely voters believe that green cards "should be given to 100,000 or fewer immigrants per year."

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