From Deseret News archives:
Tougher stance on illegals?
Poll of Utahns shows desire for restrictive measures
The survey shows overwhelming support for passing more "restrictive measures" in Utah. It also shows a decline in support for allowing undocumented college students to pay in-state tuition if they attend high school here for three years and graduate.
Some 91 percent of the 416 Utahns polled by Dan Jones & Associates said Utah lawmakers should enact restrictive measures such as requiring employers to verify a new hire's legal status or requiring applicants for public benefits to show proof of legal status. Some 79 percent said such laws "definitely should" be passed; only 7 percent opposed it. The poll's margin of error is 5 percent.
The restrictive measures received strong support among conservatives but were also supported by a majority of moderates and liberals in the statewide poll conducted Nov. 14 to 16.
Meanwhile, a slim majority of 51 percent said they supported keeping in place the in-state tuition law. Just over a year ago, another Deseret Morning News poll showed 60 percent of Utahns supported it.
Kirk Jowers, executive director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute for Politics, said the differing poll results indicate a sense of fairness, but also of frustration.
"On the one hand, why should we not take some common-sense measures for the undocumented children in this country; they are here," he said. "There is also the feeling that illegal immigration is still illegal."
The poll results could bode well for lawmakers eyeing bills that would crack down on illegal immigration.
Archie Archuleta, co-chair of the bipartisan Utah Hispanic Legislative Task Force, saw the apparent shift in public opinion as a troubling by-product of the inaction in Washington.
In the same Deseret Morning News poll in July 2005 that found 60 percent support for undocumented students getting in-state tuition rates, respondents were less certain on other aspects of immigration. For example, a majority of Utahns supported amnesty, but a majority also supported provisions such as allowing local law officers to support immigration laws and requiring employers verify workers' legal status.
"Some cities and counties are going a little crazy over illegal immigration because the feds have failed to act," Archuleta said. "Unfortunately most of these solutions are punitive. They are not designed to solve problems; they are designed to punish."
However, Rep. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, said the poll results exemplify what she heard on the campaign trail.
"I am contacted quite frequently by constituents, I know it's important to them," she said.
