What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending December 17, 2011

It was a newsy week - with the Iraq war coming to a quiet close, the Obama administration’s fight against state anti-immigration efforts going to the U.S. Supreme Court and Newt Gingrich’s runaway train seeming to slow in the Republican presidential race.

The majority of U.S. voters believe Iraq is better off than when dictator Saddam Hussein was in power, but they're not so sure the war-torn country will become peaceful and democratic anytime soon. One thing for sure: If civil war breaks out in Iraq, voters strongly believe U.S. troops should not get involved.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday announced it will decide whether the law Arizona adopted last year to fight illegal immigration violates the Constitution as the U.S. Justice Department contends. But a new survey finds that most voters still support a similar immigration law for their own state. Seventy-three percent (73%) agree that government officials are not doing enough to stop illegal immigration, and 63% think a state should have the right to enforce immigration laws if it believes the federal government is not enforcing them.

Voters continue to believe strongly that the federal government’s actions are encouraging illegal immigration as the Justice Department ended the week announcing bias charges against a popular Arizona sheriff for his anti-immigration efforts.