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July 14, 2010
Oh my! CBS poll: Support for AZ law hits 74 percent
The announcement that the Obama Administration is suing Arizona over the state's anti-illegal immigration law is even more out of step with public opinion than I'd thought. Check out the latest polling from CBS News, hardly a bastion of right-wing reportage.
Public support for Arizona's controversial new immigration law has increased slightly, a new CBS News poll shows, with 57 percent of Americans characterizing the law as "about right" in the way it addresses the issue of illegal immigration.Support for the measure increased five points since May. Since then, the Justice Department has filed suit against the law, claiming that it usurps federal authority to enforce immigration laws.
The measure in question, signed into law in April and slated to go into effect later this month, makes it a state crime for a person to be in the country illegally. It also requires local law enforcement to question a person about his or her immigration status during all "lawful stops" if there is "reasonable suspicion" that person may be in the country illegally.
Twenty-three percent of Americans think the law goes too far, according to the poll, conducted July 9 - 12. That's down five points from the 28 percent who said in May that the measure goes too far. Another 17 percent said it doesn't go far enough.
About half of Americans - 52 percent -- say states should be able to enact laws regarding illegal immigrants, while 42 percent think only the federal government should able to do so.
There is a sharp partisan divide on this question: most Democrats (58 percent) say laws covering illegal immigration should be the responsibility of the federal government only, while Republicans (64 percent) and independents (58 percent) think the states should be allowed to pass such laws.
More than half (nearly 60 percent!) think the law's about just right -- and another 17 percent think it doesn't go far enough?
Yeah, immigration's going to be a great issue for the Democrats in the upcoming mid-term elections.
Stay tuned.
Posted by Mike Lief at July 14, 2010 07:45 AM
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