More than three in four American voters want businesses that repeatedly hire illegal immigrants to face escalating penalties. Eighty percent say it is unfair for the wealthy to benefit from illegal labor while the working class competes against it. And 82 percent want the federal government to flag mismatched Social Security numbers so employers can verify their workforce.
These are not edge findings from a narrow sample. The poll, conducted by McLaughlin & Associates with 2,000 likely voters in late February and early March, found supermajority support across nearly every worksite enforcement question posed. The numbers tell a story that Washington's business lobby does not want to hear: Americans are not confused about this issue. They want the law enforced, and they want employers held accountable.
According to Breitbart, the topline results speak clearly enough, but the depth of agreement is what makes this poll significant. The key findings:
Not a single enforcement measure polled below 69 percent. That is not a divided electorate. That is a consensus being ignored.
Rosemary Jenks, cofounder of the Immigration Accountability Project and funder of the poll, framed the core problem in terms any small business owner would recognize:
"It's ridiculous that a business that breaks the law [by hiring cheap illegals] is better off than a business that follows the law."
This is the dynamic that rarely gets discussed in Washington's immigration debates. The conversation centers on the immigrants themselves, on border walls and deportation flights. But behind all of it sits a labor market in which law-abiding employers are punished for their compliance. A company that hires Americans at market wages, pays payroll taxes, and follows the rules competes against a company that pays cash off the books to workers who will accept far less. The honest business absorbs the cost. The dishonest one pockets the margin.
Jenks, who is part of the Mass Deportation Coalition, argued that consistent rule application eliminates the unfair advantage. She told Breitbart News that enforcement has to go beyond paperwork:
"The more you can make illegal aliens unemployable, the more likely they are to leave on their own … And you've got to actually apprehend and remove the illegal aliens who are found on the work sites — not just go through the company paperwork and tell the employers who hired them."
That distinction matters. An audit that results in a fine and a shrug changes nothing. An audit that results in arrests and removals changes the calculation for every employer in the industry.
While voters overwhelmingly support enforcement, GOP-aligned business groups are pressuring President Trump to abandon his campaign promise of mass deportations and instead deport only violent illegal immigrants. These groups are also pushing incoming homeland security chief Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to exempt illegal immigrants working in hotels, farms, the food industry, landscaping, retail, and other sectors.
Read that list again. Hotels. Farms. Food processing. Landscaping. Retail. Those are not niche industries. They are the backbone of the working-class labor market. The business lobby is asking, in plain terms, for a permanent carve-out that would protect their access to cheap, exploitable labor in precisely the industries where American workers are most directly undercut.
The poll demolishes the political logic behind that push. Seventy-four percent of voters reject the idea that corporations should benefit from illegal labor subsidized by taxpayers. Eighty percent call it unfair to working-class Americans. The lobby is not reading the room. It is hoped the room does not notice.
A December 2025 report by The Birmingham Group found that the construction industry is experiencing its most dramatic compensation changes in decades. The report noted that the current labor shortage is driving unprecedented wage increases across commercial projects, with some markets seeing job opening-to-candidate ratios exceeding 3:1. That imbalance has created a seller's market for skilled workers, enabling significant salary negotiations and competitive pay packages.
This is what happens when the labor supply tightens because employers can no longer rely on a bottomless pool of illegal workers willing to accept substandard wages. Construction workers, including Hispanic Americans, see their paychecks grow. Firms invest in retention. The market functions the way it is supposed to.
President Trump noted the broader trajectory, saying the economy may increasingly rely on robotics: "We're going to need robots … to make our economy run because we do not have enough people." The poll found voters split on automation as an alternative to migrant labor, with 36 percent in favor, 32 percent opposed, and 32 percent unsure. That ambivalence is understandable. But the underlying premise is sound: when cheap illegal labor disappears, employers invest in productivity. They buy machines. They raise wages. They treat workers like assets instead of line items.
The most striking number in this entire poll may be the simplest one. Eighty-two percent of likely voters agree that immigration policy should serve the interests of American citizens. Among Hispanics, 70 percent agree. Only 13 percent disagree.
That is not a partisan finding. It is not a cultural wedge issue. It is the most basic proposition a sovereign nation can put to its citizens: Should your government's immigration policy serve you? More than four in five Americans say yes.
The business lobby says protect our labor pipeline. The voters say protect our workers. Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who is leading the GOP nomination race in Georgia partly on his populist immigration and labor message, appears to have read the numbers correctly. The question is whether the rest of Washington will follow the voters or the lobbyists.
Seventy-seven percent is not a suggestion. It is a mandate.