75% Support Tough Penalties Against Employers Who Hire Illegal Immigrants

More voters continue to favor tougher laws against employers who hire illegal immigrants than against landlords who rent to them. But support for strong sanctions against both employers and landlords are at record highs.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that three-out-of-four Likely U.S. Voters (75%) now favor strict government sanctions on those who hire illegal immigrants. Only 16% oppose such sanctions. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

Fifty-nine percent (59%) also support strict sanctions on landlords who rent or sell property to illegals. Twenty-four percent (24%) are opposed to tough laws against these landlords, but 17% more are undecided.

Data released this year showed that 65% of voters see employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants are a bigger problem than illegal immigrants who are seeking a job. Sixty-one percent (61%) favor shutting down companies that knowingly and repeatedly hire illegal immigrants.

Nearly two-out-of-three voters (65%) believe that if a police officer pulls someone over for a traffic violation, he or she should automatically check to see if that person is in the country legally. Twenty-six percent (26%) oppose those automatic checks.

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The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 14-15, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.