Polling Shows Overwhelming Support for Immigration Provision in Tennessee

A recent poll shows strong support in Tennessee for immigration measures like Arizona’s new law, and even higher support when Arizona is taken out of the question.

When Tennesseans were asked if they would support a law like Arizona’s, 60 percent said yes. Then, pollsters asked about a key provision of the law, whether police should be required to check the immigration status of a suspected illegal immigrant they’ve stopped. When Arizona wasn’t mentioned, support jumped to 79 percent.

Scott Rasmussen of the independent polling agency Rasmussen Reports says the numbers indicate Tennesseans favor immigration enforcement, but the controversy over the Arizona law makes some hesitant.

“When the law was first passed, lots of people said lots of things about it. Some of them were accurate, some of them weren’t. But I think that misunderstanding or perhaps just the fact that the Arizona law has received so much negative coverage, makes some people less likely to say they’d want a law like that in their state.”

Support in Tennessee for the law enforcement provision is 10 points above the national average.

Ramussen polled 500 Tennesseans earlier this month.

Elias Feghali with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition says the poll numbers don’t necessarily mean Tennesseans are anti-immigrant. Feghali says they just want the immigration system fixed. He calls the poll misleading.

“It’s suggesting that those people are for really strong and aggressive and controversial immigration enforcement as a solution when that’s not true. I think people are frustrated, and they want something to happen, and unfortunately the federal government isn’t doing anything, and so you see states like Arizona taking it in their own hands.”

Feghali says the public would support any legislation if it appeared to present a solution to the country’s broken immigration system.

Survey questions and poll numbers can be found here. The poll also asked about Tennessee’s governor’s race. Blake Farmer’s story is here.

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The full text of the controversial Arizona law can be found here. Once police have stopped someone for a violation, the law allows the police officer to check the immigration status of the person if the officer is under “reasonable suspicion” that the person is an illegal immigrant.