LOS ANGELES, April 30 (UPI) -- A new poll says Californians generally favor President George Bush's approach to illegal immigration rather than the more punitive U.S. House legislation.
By a ratio of more than 3 to 1, those surveyed by the Los Angles Times said they supported tougher border enforcement combined with a guest-worker program and a pathway to citizenship for those already in the United States.
A guest-worker proposal giving temporary visas to non-citizens who want to work in the U.S. drew the support of 64 percent of those surveyed. Three in four Latinos favored the guest-worker plan, compared with six in 10 whites.
A proposal establishing a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants who step forward, pay a fine and learn English, was even more popular, drawing support from more than seven in 10 Californians, the newspaper said.
The Times poll gave poor marks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, with 49 percent of voters disapproving if his handling of the issue.
The newspaper interviewed 1,863 Californians from April 21 through April 27. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.
