Americans Support Pathway to Citizenship AND Arizona's Law

A bit of contradiction perhaps in U.S. opinion on immigration policy, from the latest ABC/Washington Post national survey: respondents support both Arizona's new immigration law and the prospect of letting illegal immigrants obtain citizenship with a fine.

Interestingly, the margins are statistically even: SB1070 is backed 58%-41%, while a pathway for citizenship is supported 57%-40%. Turns out most people don't adhere strictly to either the conservative hard line (no amnesty, yes on SB1070) or the liberal line (yes to citizenship, no to SB1070). The results show that most people are probably somewhere in the middle on immigration.

Support for giving undocumented aliens "the right to live here LEGALLY if they pay a fine and meet other requirements" is actually down from last year: in April 2009, ABC/Post polling found 61%-35% support for that.

Results are from a June 3-6 telephone survey of 1,004 adults, including both land lines and cell phones.