HAMDEN, Conn., June 1 (UPI) -- More than half of U.S. voters favor Arizona's strict new immigration law and nearly as many want their states to pass a similar one, a poll indicates.
The poll, released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., shows 51 percent of voters said they support the immigration law, while 31 percent said they oppose it. Nearly half, 48 percent, said they want their state to pass a similar law, while 35 percent said they would not want such a law, the poll indicated.
More than three in four of those surveyed said plans by the Arizona law's opponents to boycott the state are a bad idea. Two-thirds said they favor stricter enforcement of immigration laws over integrating immigrants into U.S. society.
"The Arizona immigration law has emerged as a major divide in the country, but the numbers are on the side of those supporting it," Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement. "The strong plurality who ... would like a similar law in their own state probably portends the law will be an issue in many, many campaigns this November across the country."
The poll is based on surveys of 1,914 registered voters nationwide May 19-24 and has a margin of error 2.2 percentage points.
