What does the public want on immigration?

Pollster Ruy Teixeira at Donkey Rising examines U.S. attitudes toward immigration. Read the whole post for the details, but these are his six main findings:

1. The public believes immigration is a serious problem and levels of concern appear to be growing.
2. The public generally believes that immigrants don't displace American citizens from jobs.
3. On the other hand, the public does believe immigration depresses wages.
4. The public overwhelmingly wants tougher action to keep illegal immigrants out of the country.
5. But there is little enthusiasm for an enforcement approach that focuses exclusively on illegal immigrants themselves and removing them from the country, especially when posed against alternatives.
6. The public is open to a guest worker program for illegal immigrants and to making it easier for them to obtain citizenship, but only if certain strict conditions are met.

With regard to #5, "49 percent said the best way to reduce illegal immigration from Mexico was to penalize employers, compared to 33 percent who chose increasing border patrols and 9 percent who favored building more fences." This is the common-sense solution — reduce the demand for cheap, illegal labor and you reduce the supply of illegal labor.