October 4, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward

Conservatives back secure borders

Last month, The Heritage Foundation polled thousands of conservatives on one of today’s most important issues: illegal immigration.

The results are clear: conservatives oppose illegal immigration and any program that would reward lawbreakers. They also support fundamental changes to American policy to encourage skilled workers to immigrate and discourage employers from hiring illegal aliens.

Survey results

Amnesty

1. Do you think illegal immigrants now in the United States should be given amnesty?

1.7%    Yes
96.6     No
1.7       Undecided

2. What should we do about the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the U.S.?

10.9%  Give them a path to citizenship
38.7     Deport as many as possible
50.4     Give them incentives to leave by making it difficult for employers to hire them

3. Do you think illegal immigrants should be given a path to citizenship that is easier than the path for legal immigrants?

0.6%    Yes
98.9     No
0.5       Undecided

Guest workers

4. Do you support instituting a guest worker program?

3.0%    Yes, now
59.5     Yes, after the borders are secured
30.9     No, never
6.7       Undecided

5. Should securing our border have a higher priority than creating a guest worker program?

97.0%  Yes
1.9       No
1.1       Undecided

Immigration control

6. How should we control future illegal immigration? (Respondents could select more than one response.)

70.7%  Build a fence along the Mexican border
46.3     Create a national identity card so everyone who enters the U.S. can be tracked
73.9     Put more manpower on the borders
88.4     Enact tough employer sanctions to effectively prevent hiring illegal aliens
0.4       We don't need to control illegal immigration

Other

7. Do you agree that we should admit a total of 66 million new immigrants over the next 20 years, as politicians have recently proposed?

2.1%    Yes
91.7     No
6.3       Undecided

8. Which kind of immigrant would benefit America more?

6.0%    Low-education, low-skill people
94.0     Educated, skilled people

9. Do you think immigrants should be required to give up their citizenship in their countries of birth in order to become American citizens?

85.8%  Yes
6.9       No
7.3       Undecided

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.