Poll: Immigration concern rising in USA

This is off USA Today:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are now about as likely to mention immigration as the economy when they are asked to name the most important problem facing the United States, though both rank behind war in Iraq and elsewhere, an AP-Ipsos poll found.

Immigration's rise in the latest survey about the nation's top problems suggests the public is keeping close watch on the immigration debate in Congress and reaction around the country.

Efforts in the Senate to pass sweeping immigration legislation faltered Friday, leaving in doubt the prospects for passage of a measure that offered the hope of citizenship to millions of men, women and children living in the United States illegally.

The rise in public concern about immigration over the last three months has been substantial.

When people were asked this past week to name the top national problem that came to mind, 13% said immigration — four times the number who said that in January. Roughly the same number, 14% of those polled, named the economy, according to the poll of 500 adults conducted April 3-5. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

About one in five, 19%, said they view war as the nation's top problem.

I will say that I find it interesting that the immigration issue is starting to rise as a concern for the American public. Over this past month, immigration has taken over the newspapers front pages, as both congressional leaders have grappled with a compromise bill, and protest movements have broken out all over the country. And what does President Bush have to say about the immigration bill--the president just blames the Democrats for scuttling the immigration bill, when in fact, it was members of his own political party that killed the bill. This disaster is especially going to hurt the Republicans, since it has been the goal of the Republican Party to court the Latino vote. And immigration is a strong issue for the Latinos. Without the immigration reform bill, President Bush and the Republicans really don't have much to offer the Hispanic community for their votes--especially those votes in the congressional elections in southwestern states for this November.