Americans favor giving undocumented workers chance to stay

PRINCETON, N.J., April 12 (UPI) -- Seventy percent of Americans said they'd allow undocumented workers to have a chance to become "permanent legal residents," Gallup said Friday.

Similarly, about seven in 10 Americans said the same thing when asked if they would vote for or against a law allowing immigrants living in the United States illegally a chance to become "U.S. citizens," results indicated.

Democrats and those who lean Democratic were more supportive than Republicans and Republican-leaning respondents on the question of allowing immigrants living in the United States illegally to have a chance to stay in the country legally, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Gallup noted support among Democrats and Republicans was essentially equal whether the question was worded to include the phrase "permanent legal residents" or "U.S. citizens."

Survey results came as a bipartisan group of senators worked to prepare a comprehensive immigration reform bill ready for introduction.

Fifty-two percent of Americans said they would vote for a work visa program that allows a specified number of immigrants into the country every year to work at generally lesser-skilled jobs while 44 percent said they would vote against it, results indicated.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews with 1,018 adults conducted Tuesday and Wednesday. The margin of error is 6 percentage points.