Poll: Hispanics Oppose Tough Immigration Tactics

Most Hispanics are opposed to hard-line tactics to combat illegal immigration, say discrimination against Hispanics is a major problem, and are afraid they or someone close to them could be deported, according to a new report released yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The findings come as Republican presidential candidates are highlighting tough proposals to end illegal immigration as they enter the final stages of the primary race — a strategy that could hurt them in the general election as Hispanic voters appear to be swinging to the Democrats.

The report provided more details from a survey first published last week that showed Republicans have lost their recent gains among Hispanic voters over the past year.

The report found that three-quarters of Hispanics disapproved of workplace raids and of local police arresting illegal immigrants. By contrast, less than half of non-Hispanics disapproved of workplace raids and of police taking a role in immigration enforcement. Republican candidates seeking their party's presidential nomination have largely been playing to non-Hispanics to drum up support in the Republican base, even as immigration experts and some Republican strategists have warned they could risk the Hispanic vote, a major factor in President Bush's 2004 victory.

At the first Spanish-language Republican debate this week, candidates modified their hard-line stance on immigration only slightly for the Hispanic audience.

The study released yesterday shows that most Hispanics, 64%, in the survey said they believed the immigration policy debate has made life harder for them. Hispanics who lean Democratic were more likely to say life was more difficult, but 58% of Republican-leaning Hispanics also thought life was harder for them in the context of the immigration debate.

"These kinds of concerns are part of the fabric of the lives of many Latinos living in this country," one of the report's authors and a leading expert on illegal immigration, Jeffrey Passel, said.

There were some differences among Hispanics who were born here and those who immigrated, the report found. Among foreign-born Hispanics, three-quarters said illegal immigrants were helpful to the economy compared to 64% of native-born Hispanics.

Nationwide, about 64% of Hispanics are citizens, compared to about a quarter here illegally.

Among all Hispanics, the report's authors also noted a rise over the past five years in the proportion who feel discriminated against, to 54% in November this year from 44% in 2002.

The Pew report also examined the rise in enforcement against illegal immigrants last year and a spike in local and state laws to address the issue as a national immigration overhaul has floundered. It found that workplace raids have increased 10-fold in the past five years, while the number of people deported reached 300,500 in the last fiscal year, an 84% increase since 2002. The number of local immigration laws introduced in state legislatures tripled this year.

A separate report also released yesterday by the nonpartisan, pro-immigrant Migration Policy Institute said many of the new enforcement laws at the state and local level either conflict with federal law or are unconstitutional. It highlights places where local police departments that have been deputized as immigration enforcement officials and crackdowns on day laborers, such as a recent effort in Mamaroneck.