Report: Latinos Feeling a Chill Because of Immigration Debate

WASHINGTON — More than half of U.S. Latinos — including citizens, legal residents and illegal immigrants — worry about being deported themselves or seeing a family member or close friend kicked out of the country, a report released Thursday found.

In addition, many believe that the national debate over illegal immigration has made it more difficult for them to get a job or buy a home, said the report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a non-partisan research group in Washington.

"Latinos are feeling a range of negative effects from the increased public attention and the stepped-up enforcement measures that have accompanied the growing national debate over illegal immigration," said Paul Taylor, acting director of the center.

The study found that two-thirds of Hispanics believe that the failure to enact an immigration overhaul in Congress has made life more difficult for all Latinos in the United States.

A White House-backed immigration measure that would have given many illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and created a guest worker program failed in the Senate earlier this year and the prospects for similar legislation are bleak.

In lieu of Congressional action, states and local governments have approved an unprecedented number of laws, regulations and procedures to crack down on illegal immigration. The federal government has also stepped-up workplace enforcement and is building more fences on the Southern border.

The Pew report, based on a nationwide survey, found that many Hispanics disapprove of these actions. Seventy-five percent said they oppose workplace raids, 79 percent said they do not like local police taking an active role in identifying illegal immigrants, and 55 percent said they disapprove of states checking for legal status before issuing driver's licenses.

By contrast, non-Hispanics are much more supportive of all these policies, with a slight majority favoring workplace raids and a heavy majority favoring driver's license checks, the report says.

The survey comes as illegal immigration has become a central theme in the Republican presidential contest, with candidates spending time and money to prove they are tough on the issue.

In addition, most Democratic presidential candidates have rejected driver's licenses for illegal immigrants after being pressed on the issue.

Some Latinos said that the increased public attention on immigration has had a specific negative effect on their lives. About 12 percent said they had more trouble getting or keeping a job; 15 percent said they had more trouble finding or keeping housing; 19 percent said they have been asked to produce documents to prove their immigration status more often than in the past; and 24 percent said they are less likely to travel abroad.

Despite the concerns, Hispanics are generally upbeat about the long-term prospects for their children, the survey found.

Nearly 80 percent said they are "very" or "somewhat" confident that Latino children growing up now will have better jobs and more money than they have.

The report also found:

— Hispanics have a generally positive view of illegal immigrants. Three-quarters say illegal immigrants help the U.S. economy by providing low-cost labor, while just 17 percent say they hurt the economy by driving down wages.

— Hispanics who are not U.S. citizens feel more vulnerable in the current environment than do Hispanics who are citizens. Non-citizens account for 44 percent of the adult Hispanic population. Of those non-citizen adults, more than half are in the United States illegally.

The survey included phone interviews with 2,003 Hispanic adults from Oct. 3 to Nov. 9. It has a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.

On the Web:

Pew Hispanic Center: pewhispanic.org