Americans Want Penalties for Employers of Illegal Immigrants

Which of the following actions do you think would be most effective in reducing the number of illegal immigrants who come to the U.S. across the Mexican border

	Jun. 2007	Mar. 2006
Increasing the penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants	55%	49%
Increasing the number of border patrol agents	25%	33%
Building more fences on the border	7%	9%
Don’t know / Refused	13%	9%

Regardless of your views on the current legislation before Congress, do you think it is essential that the president and Congress revise immigration laws this year, is it something they need to do in the next few years, or do the immigration laws not need changing?

Essential this year	50%
Need to do in the next few years	37%
Laws don’t need changing	7%
Don’t know / Refused	6%

Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,503 American adults, conducted from May 30 to Jun. 3, 2007. Margin of error is 3 per cent.