American Opinion Splintered on Immigration Issues

NEW YORK —  Proposals to deny citizenship, health benefits and public education to the children of illegal immigrants draw less-than-majority support from Americans, according to an Associated Press poll.

The poll found so much divisiveness that immigration issues may not prove as potent in national politics as they have been in some states, such as California.

Choosing among the presidential candidates, 40% say Bill Clinton can do the best job of dealing with immigration, 30% prefer Bob Dole and 11% think Ross Perot is the man for the job. A significant 19% are uncertain.

One in three Americans say they are concerned “a great deal” by illegal immigration. This group includes more than its share of Republican voters but prefers Clinton and Dole about equally as the best candidate to tackle the issue.

Political independents, who could be swing voters in November, are less concerned about the issue and more likely to trust it to Perot, compared to Americans overall.

A substantial 44% of Americans say they have more foreign-born residents in their community these days. These respondents are slightly more likely to want a reduction in legal immigration and a cutoff of health and education benefits for illegal immigrants and their children.

But those who live in communities with a growing immigrant population oppose denying citizenship to children born in this country to illegal immigrants, by a margin of 52% to 43%. Residents who have fewer or the same number of foreign-born neighbors are split evenly on the citizenship question.

Overall, citizenship cutoff is opposed by 49% to 43%, while a halt in government health benefits and public education is favored by 47% and opposed by 46%, a statistical tie.

The poll was taken by telephone Sept. 11-15 among a random sample of 1,012 adult Americans in all states except Alaska and Hawaii. Its margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.